A country boy went to visit a friend in New York City. It was about noon and they were downtown by Times Square in Manhattan. The streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, sirens were wailing and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. The country boy said, “I hear a cricket.” His friend said, “You have got to be kidding. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket with all this noise.” The country boy listened again and said, “Yes I’m sure of it. I hear a cricket.” The two boys listened very carefully for a moment and then the country boy walked across the street to a big cement planter where some bushes were growing. He looked into the bushes and sure enough there was a cricket there. “That’s incredible,” said the city boy. “You must have super-human ears.” “No.” said the country boy. “My ears are no different then yours. It all depends on what you are listening for.” What are you listening for today? God wants to speak to you.
God loves you just the way you are. If you think His love for you would be stronger if your faith were, you are wrong. If you think His love would be deeper if your thoughts were, wrong again. Don’t confuse God’s love with the love of people. The love of people often increases with performance and decreases with mistakes. Not so with God’s love.
God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus. God’s love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn Him. Ignore Him. Reject Him. Despise Him. Disobey Him. He will not change. Our evil cannot diminish His love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it. God doesn’t love us less if we fail or more if we succeed. God’s love never ceases. God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed 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. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.
In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. (Acts 12:1-19)
Many people were praying, they were praying earnestly, they prayed night and day for perhaps as long as a week and their prayers were centered specifically on Peter’s deliverance. The answer to their prayers is standing at the door, but they don’t have faith enough to open the door and let him in. God could get Peter out of a prison, but Peter can’t get himself into a prayer meeting!
The Angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the Angel.
Sometimes, in our lives and Christian walk, we suffer hardships. But just as a diamond seems to sparkle more brilliantly when displayed against a black velvet background, the radiant beauty of Christ-like character seems to shine more splendidly against the backdrop of suffering. Look at our example of Peter chained to the guards in prison.
Remember the story of Mary and Martha and the death of their brother Lazarus. When the summoned for Jesus to come immediately because their brother was sick (on their time), he arrived days later (on His time) long after Lazarus had died. Mary and Martha were angry and sad, their grief and suffering overbearing.
Mary was filled with the “if only’s” that we have talked about so much. Her mind was focused on the past and what might have been. You promised me that you would never say these two words again, but what about our if only’s?
“If only I hadn’t gone there.”
“If only I’d made a wiser choice.”
“If only I had prayed about it.”
“If only I hadn’t said the things I did.”
“If only I had spent more time with him.”
“If only I had taken it seriously.”
“If only I had known then what I know now.”
“If only Jesus would have answered my prayer when I asked Him to.”
“If only Jesus were here….”
Mary thought Jesus had arrived too late. Do you think that now?
He is never too late to provide healing, comfort, cleansing, peace, answers to impossible questions, mending, restoration…….He forgives and He forgets, He cares and He cleanses, He restores and He rebuilds, He heals and He helps, He reconciles and He redeems, He comforts and He carries, He lifts and He loves.
Think about what the world demands of us? Think of how we are measured by the world’s standards? We must be overly productive, driven and ambitious at practically all cost. Our schedules must be full, our achievements must be great. There can be no room for fear of success or fear of failure. That is not an option. And there will always be others who are more talented, better educated, better looking, younger, smarter, better equipped, more qualified and better suited to do what we do.
And in the world we measure ourselves against these people. But not here. Not in this place. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of Life.” And the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So for a few moments, pray that God would renew your mind through Jesus Christ. Pray that God would renew your spirit, renew your heart.
What a blessed relief to be reminded how well God knows each of us. He knows us so well that He understands that apart from Him, we can do nothing.
“I don’t have to prove myself to God.”
“I don’t have to worry about disappointing God.”
“I don’t have to earn His respect.”
“I don’t have to deserve His blessings.”
“I don’t have to work hard to be accepted.”
“I don’t have to produce a quota.”
“I don’t have to be successful.”
He created me in the first place. He knows how I am formed. He created me with a purpose in mind. There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and there is nothing I can do to cause God to love me less.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
