Stretched in Prayer

but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."

Acts 12:5

One of the most amazing things about your physical body is that it becomes stronger with exercise. Have you ever lifted weights? When you first sit down on the weight bench, you can barely lift the empty bar. After a few weeks, you can pump more iron than you ever dreamed. Have you ever had to get in shape to play a sport? When you join the team, one length of the basketball court has you ready for the cardiac ward. But after a month or so of practice, you can play on and on. Human endurance increases under duress.

Intellect is more complex; still, it quickens with need and use. Does our spiritual capacity also increase under pressure? It does indeed. In Romans 5:3,4 Paul says suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. While there are natural human limitations to physical and intellectual growth, our potential for spiritual growth can increase with the limitless power of God.

The book of Acts showcases the spiritual stretching of the early church. In Acts chapter12, King Herod executed James, one of the three men who had been closest to Jesus. Seeing this pleased our enemies, Herod put Peter in prison preparing to kill him too.

In verse five we read, "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him." Luke uses picturesque language here. The Greek word, "ektenas," translated "Earnestly," actually means "stretched out." "Ektenas" is closely related to the verb, "ekteino" which Jesus used to tell a man to stretch out his withered hand. God put His church in a place where their faith could be stretched.

Pressed in the Fellowship of prayer

In Matthew 18:19 Jesus gave us a special promise of power in united prayer. There were no breaches in the fellowship on the night of Peter's imprisonment. Together they prayed for the power of God in the crisis.

A friend recently asked me what I thought were the building blocks of great fellowship in a church. After a little thought I came up with four essentials for close biblical fellowship.

1. Teaching

A church needs sound teaching that includes instruction on the importance of unity. People must be taught to want the close fellowship portrayed and commanded in the New Testament.

2. Purpose
A sense of God's mission unites church members. A clear vision of God's purpose takes our minds off the petty issues that divide us.

3. Prayer

Real unity is supernatural. We must pray for it. Amazing unity is often realized when people pray together. Unity in prayer characterized the church in the Book of Acts. The Greek word "homothumadon," "with one mind," is used 11 times in the first 19 chapters of Acts, and it almost always relates to prayer.

It is not difficult for readers to step into that prayer meeting in Acts chapter 12. My heart readily joins those early believers seeking God in their crisis. This brings us to a less popular ingredient of great fellowship.

4. Problems

Troubles drive us together. The crisis in that hour was so great that the church had only one mind. They were forced together in the urgency of prayer.

STRETCHED IN THE DEPENDENCE OF PRAYER

Acts 12:5 says the church was earnestly praying "to God." At first glance this sounds redundant. Isn't all prayer to God? But most of us can admit that some of our prayers hardly give God a thought. They are filled with habitual terms and practiced form that squelch genuine intimacy. Desperate prayer discards phony eloquence.

Crises also cast off lesser gods. Most of us do not flaunt idolatry like the people Jeremiah chastened in his Old Testament prophecy. You have probably never called the furniture in your living room your father. You may not actually pray to your BMW or your 401-k. But we are all tempted to look to things for protection, provision and meaning in life. Possessions cry for attention that supplants devotion to God. That veil of distraction is often removed in a crisis. Let one of your children be in a car accident, or hear the doctor say, "You have cancer." Suddenly worldly distractions crumble like plaster in an earthquake. In such urgencies the Holy Spirit makes us desperate for God and God alone.

I have occasionally asked people to tell about the times they felt nearest to God. People nearly always answer that question with stories of great trouble or overwhelming grief. Psalm 46:1 reads, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." He is there when we call on Him in truth.

STRETCHING THE DISCIPLINE OF YOUR PRAYER LIFE

Some Bible versions translate "ektenas" in Acts 12:5 as, "constantly," rather than "earnestly." When you understand this word to mean, "stretched out," you can see how the two thoughts fit together. When your soul is stretched out in earnest prayer, time becomes irrelevant. Recently I was struck by Luke 5:12 where Jesus spent all night praying. Wow! He spent the whole night in prayer! Have you ever done that? As far as we know the disciples had not prayed all night until Peter was imprisoned in Acts 12.

The Holy Spirit makes us desperate for God and God alone.

I doubt if they planned to pray all that night. The situation drove them to such fervent prayer that no one thought about time. Some of them may have put their children to sleep on pallets. It did not matter that they had to be at work in the morning. They had also worked the day before. They did not think about their comfort or convenience. Nothing mattered except prayer. They were desperate for God's power.

I do a number of things to develop spiritual disciplines in my life. Such efforts always work better in a crisis. I wish I could say I didn't need problems, but I do. A problem is a call to prayer. God uses trials to press me to Himself. When a baby is born the doctor may swat it on the bottom. Crying fills the baby's lungs with air. When the church cries out to God in a crisis, we are filled with the fresh wind of His Spirit.

In times of stretching we see God's power most clearly demonstrated. If Peter had not been thrown into prison, he would not have known the reality of God's power to release him. He was already out on the street before he realized that he was not seeing a vision.

James 1:4 reiterates; tribulation produces perseverance. There God calls us to let perseverance finish its work. The problems in your life will drive you into God's embrace. Let your prayer life be stretched more and more to show the world the Power of our God.