Acts 12: 5,  Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.  

Herod was on a roll and he was just arresting Christians because it made some of the Jews happy so he had Peter arrested and planned on killing him just like he had just killed James, but the church prayed.  The power of prayer… this story is such a huge encouragement to me because it clearly shows us that it isn’t in praying the right words, and it doesn’t matter who you are, or even necessarily your level of “faith”, Yes, those things matter but it is all about Who we are praying to!  These Christians were following God during a time of great persecution of the church but the level of “faith” they had for their prayers to be answered is evident in verses 12-16 of this chapter:

     So, when he (Peter) had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.  And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.  When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.  But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!”  Yet she kept insisting that it was so.  So they said, “It is his angel.”  Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

They were all together praying for Peter but they were astonished when God answered their prayers and Peter showed up.  Well, I must admit that I have had those moments when I have prayed and then was somewhat surprised when the answer came.  Sad to say though, I have also had moments when I have prayed and poured my heart out to God over something that I knew was His will and I was praying and believing but nothing was happening and I would question myself on what I was doing wrong.  I have heard messages that have popped up during those moments that were all about prayer that made everything sound so impossible; “If you haven’t received an answer then maybe you spoke words out loud that were not faith-filled so that’s why or maybe you prayed and you didn’t have enough faith….” We can turn prayer into such a complicated thing that it is no wonder some people give up on it.  I will say again ~ Prayer is dependent on God and His will and His timing.  Does that mean we don’t need to pray?  Of course not!  We must pray, but instead of feeling like you need to muster up some feeling of faith inside for the situation, have confidence and trust in Him, the One who loves you.  It’s all about Him and He is faithful!  Just because the answer hasn’t come doesn’t mean it isn’t, God’s timing is perfect.  Let’s look back at Genesis when God was telling Abraham about the future of his descendants in chapter 15:16,  “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”  There are times your answer is waiting for what God is doing in someone else’s life.  Trust Him!

So, whatever you are praying for don’t give up.  Pray with the faith and trust in God that He is working and hold on to the promises that you have been given.  Pray with confidence that He is doing what is best ~ He loves you.  “Faith” in my Jewish Study Bible which was translated by Messianic Jewish Rabbis, is the word “Trust”.  That gives a bit of a different perspective on it.  So, when you pray your faith is trusting Him that He will answer in His timing and that it will be the best answer for the situation.  Yes, we are called to believe and that belief stems from the fact that we know Him and His character.  He is a Holy, Loving, Just, Trustworthy, and Powerful God and He is not ignoring you or waiting for you to muster up some sort of energy inside called “faith”.  He wants you to trust Him with it all!  When you trust that His answer will be best because He knows what is best it takes such a load off.  We all want the people we love to trust us and we aren’t perfect, we make mistakes, but God is perfect and whatever He does is always perfect, we may not always see why it is in the moment, but trust Him.  He loves you more than words can possibly say!  Walk with Him and ask for His forgiveness for any sin in your life and pray without ceasing knowing that He loves you and His answer may be knocking at your gate today!