Faith without expectancy?

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ 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. ⁴ 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.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

⁶ 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. ⁷ 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…

¹² 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. ¹³ Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished… Acts 12:1-15

There aren’t many passages in the Bible that raise a smile. That’s no criticism, of course, just a fact. But I think Acts 12 does just that.

The story summed up…

Simon Peter has been imprisoned by King Herod. The believers “pray earnestly” for him, whereupon he is miraculously set free by an angel. He goes to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where “many people had gathered and were praying”. A servant girl called Rhoda comes to answer his knocking at the door, but on hearing his voice she is so discombobulated that instead of opening it she runs back inside and  – guess what? – they don’t believe her: “You’re out of your mind” they tell her. When she insists, they change their minds: “It must be his angel”. (Meanwhile poor Peter is still outside in the cold, wondering what’s going on…)

Not very funny for Peter. But hopefully we can see the comical side, if only because – let’s be honest – we see a little too much of ourselves in that group of praying Christians. They were, I am sure, very strong in their faith, “praying earnestly for him”, and confident that God could, and sometimes did, work extraordinary miracles. Yet when they were told by Rhoda that Peter was knocking on the door they simply didn’t believe her (did some of them roll their eyes and shake their heads, muttering, “That silly girl Rhoda”?). They have been praying for the very thing Rhoda announces! How could they be so foolish?

But are we any better? Our prayers can become dutiful and formulaic, so much so that if we had today what we might call a “Rhoda moment” we would be as sceptical as that group gathered in the home of John Mark’s mother.

It’s possible, it seems, to have genuine faith - but also to lack expectation.

I find this, in a back to front kind of way, quite encouraging. These people, after all, were living in the near-aftermath of Christ’s resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. We’re not! I won’t say that miracles were a daily event in their experience – that would be going too far - but certainly they seem to have happened on a pretty regular basis: Luke tells us, for example, that “The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people” (Acts 5:12). Given that it seems the meeting had gathered for the precise purpose of praying for Peter, might we not feel entitled to expect something a bit better than plain unbelief! So when we are inclined (as I often am) to accuse myself of lack of expectation, is it wrong of me to console myself with the thought “Well, apparently the first believers were no better!”?

Still more: I know we mustn’t make excuses for ourselves for lack of expectation, but it’s a fact that much of our praying is likely to be what you might call “long-term” praying, where we rightly emphasise the need for perseverance in our prayers, whereas the praying we read about in this passage is red-hot up to date.

Jesus tells his people in Matthew 7:7-8 to “ask (and go on asking), seek (and go on seeking), knock (and go on knocking) and the door will be opened to you”. I heard this described once as “soaking” prayer, and while, yes, there may be times when we feel that God has given us a “No” answer, and therefore stop praying for a particular topic or person (see Paul’s experience in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9), the “norm” is simply to keep persevering.

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people and situations for whom you have been praying regularly for years. And under those circumstances it’s virtually impossible to maintain that red-hot expectation with which we began – while trusting, of course, that God is, if I may put it so, “on the case” in ways we cannot see.

The point being… If we are talking about “excuses” for lack of expectation in prayer (which of course we’re not), are we not in a better situation than those people so long ago in Jerusalem whose need was indeed red-hot? Their need that day was fresh and urgent; ours, usually, is unavoidably routine to the point of seeming humdrum. (And, of course, there must be no attempt to artificially whip the emotions up!)

Where does this lead us? Perhaps to some such prayer as this…

Dear Father, please keep my faith strong, positive and expectant. But at those times when prayer seems dull and repetitive, please keep me strong in sheer trusting perseverance. Amen.