The Audience for Prayer

Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.
–Acts 12:5

My parents told me about a prayer meeting they went to where everybody seemed to be trying to outpray one another. Finally, one man stood up and offered the longest prayer imaginable. After using every theological word he could think of, he came in for a landing with his big finish: “And Lord, when the day has come that this life is over, and we cross over the . . .” He wanted to say “Jordan” but couldn’t think of the word. So he rewound and tried again: “And Lord, when the day has come that this life is over, and we cross over the . . . equator.” Everybody burst into laughter, and the prayer meeting ended right there.

In Acts 12, the church at Jerusalem held a prayer meeting for Peter, who had been arrested. Verse 5 says, “Prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.” Later in the chapter, we see that God answered their prayers in a powerful way.

What made the church’s prayers so effective? James Montgomery Boice pointed out that the church prayed to God. This may seem like a no-brainer. Who else would they pray to? But as my parents witnessed at that prayer meeting, sometimes we pray to other people, trying to impress them. Sometimes we even pray to ourselves, like the Pharisee did in Jesus’ story in Luke 18. But the church didn’t offer any equatorial prayers on Peter’s behalf. They prayed to God.

In his book The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power, R. A. Torrey described a realization that transformed his prayer life. He said he “realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an audience with God, actually coming into the presence of God and asking and getting things from Him. . . . From that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege, one of the most highly esteemed privileges of life. Before that the thought that I had was, ‘How much time must I spend in prayer?’ The thought that now possesses me is, ‘How much time may I spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of life?’”

When you pray, remember you’re praying to God. That’s the foundation for powerful prayer.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Persecution, Prison, and Prayer,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2022.

James Montgomery Boice, Acts: An Expositional Commentary (Baker, 1997), 210; R. A. Torrey, The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power (Fleming H. Revell, 1924), 77.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.