Friday Faithful Faves: Acts

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I *love* the book of Acts. So much good stuff to choose from...but I landed on this little narrative and it made me smile. So this is what I've selected:

Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, 'Peter is at the door!'

'You're out of your mind,' they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, 'It must be his angel.'

But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. -- Acts 12:13 - 17a

There is so much in this whole story...which sadly begins with the beheading of John's brother, James...but I'm going to focus on this bit of it, because it always struck me funny that the believers did not believe Rhoda when she came and told them that the answer to their prayers was standing on the front porch. Nobody even went to see, until they heard his continued knocking.

I've talked before about the Hebrew scholars who wouldn't check out the Magi's story at the birth of Christ, because he didn't come as they expected, but, see, in this instance faithful, praying followers of Christ wouldn't even walk to the door to see if Rhoda was right.

Why? Because they expected the answer to come in a different way

The folks gathered at John Mark's mother's house knew Peter was chained to guards and locked in prison; I really think the focus of their prayers was for God to move miraculously on the trial the next day.

But how much cooler was God's answer to their prayers for Peter??

I need to learn not to limit God with my preconceived expectations.