At the Door
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!” Acts 12:13–14
Many people had gathered to pray for Peter, who had been arrested by Herod and would certainly be executed like James, the brother of John. I imagine each person present prayed fervently for Peter’s release, asking for a miracle, maybe even for God’s judgment to fall on wicked Herod.
But then the unexpected happened.
A servant, Rhoda, heard someone pounding on the outer door and went to see who it was. She didn’t open the door. After all, Herod’s temple guards could have been outside with orders to arrest the Christians in the house. Maybe in a trembling voice she said, “Who is it?”
Luke writes that she recognized Peter’s voice (v. 14) when he identified himself, so she must have known the apostle pretty well or at least heard him speak often. She was so excited that she ran back to the group without letting him enter. “Peter is at the door!” she told them.
These prayer warriors turned to her and said, “You’re out of your mind” (v. 15). But when she insisted that she had heard his voice, they relented and said, “It must be his angel” (v. 15).
Peter, however, knocked so loudly that they had to go to the door, if only to quiet the person outside before the neighbors heard the ruckus. And indeed it was Peter. Not a vision. Not an angel.
This story convicts me. Like the people in the prayer group, I often pray earnestly for God to do something—about family issues, health concerns, financial setbacks, national crises, and international conflicts. You probably do too. But do I truly believe God will answer these requests? Would I be as astonished as the first-century prayer warriors if the answer to my request was answered as miraculously as Peter knocking on the door?
I like to imagine that Peter, John, and some of the other disciples had a good laugh about the way God outfoxed Herod and delivered Peter from prison. Such a powerful example of what Jesus taught them: “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). I think they also had a few chuckles over the prayer group’s reaction to Peter’s deliverance.
Decades later, the apostle John wrote, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).
What if that prayer group had stationed Rhoda at the door, saying, “Watch for Peter. We’re confident God is going to deliver him, so be ready to greet him”? What if you and I had that same kind of expectancy?
Review what’s on your prayer list—in your church, your small group, and your personal journal. Are you listening for a knock at the door? Ask God to show you how to pray with confidence and expectancy.
Dig Deeper
Read Acts 12:1–19. What details of this story about Peter, Rhoda, and the prayer group stand out to you? Which people do you relate to? Why?
In Matthew 17:20, Jesus tells the disciples, “Nothing will be impossible for you.” What prompted him to say that according to verses 14–19? About what need or concern might Jesus be saying “it’s not impossible” to you?
Read James 4:1–3, 1 John 3:21–24, 1 John 5:14–15. What conditions are placed on the likelihood of God answering our requests in these verses?
Denise K. Loock
This devotion is part of our series on the book of Acts.