Be Still and Know That I Am God # 6

Peter In Prison

From Pentecost until today, this same spiritual experience has been repeated again and again. Peter himself proved the power of God in a remarkable way, as in this spirit he waited patiently for the Lord. His own words were, "Now I know of a truth that the Lord hath sent forth his angel, and delivered me ..." (Acts 12;11). His case had been quite desperate, but the miraculous rescue came to make plain that God is indeed God. Shut up in a dungeon, closely guarded as well as chained, on the very eve of impending execution, he had come face to face with ultimate things. Then, in a wonderful way, chains had fallen off, prison doors had opened of their own accord, and he was free. There was only one explanation. He had proved the reality of God's living power. Peter had known for a long time that God is the great Reality, but that night he came to know it as never before. "Now I know ...".

What was his own contribution to this great happening? We know, of course, that what took place was brought about by the faithful and earnest prayer of the church. This however, is not what we are now considering. We want to know what Peter did. The matter is not left to our conjectures, for we are told the simple truth, "Peter was sleeping" (Acts 12:6). This may surprise us. Ought not Peter to have been wrestling in prayer? Clearly he did not think so. No doubt he had prayed before falling asleep, but it must have been a simple prayer of quiet confidence. "In returning and in rest" he was saved. God worked while he slept. It may even be true to say that God worked because he slept.

We may be inclined to blame Peter for this deep sleep which was so sound that the angel had to hit him in order to wake him from it. So to sleep at such a time may seem very unspiritual. Nevertheless if we put ourselves  in his place, we may well ask ourselves if we would have done the same thing in those circumstances. Much lesser trials than his have a way of robbing us of sleep. We can talk, we can think, we can even pray; but the one thing which we do not seem able to do is to relax into sound and peaceful sleep. So it seems likely that Peter's action, far from being unspiritual, was the best way of expressing triumphant faith. On the basis of such heart-rest and quiet confidence, the Lord finds His best opportunities of showing His power and Godhead.

So Peter's name must be added to the list of those who have received outstanding proofs of how right it is to put our affairs in the Lord's hands, to cast all our burdens on the Lord, to refuse anxiety and fret, and to exercise restful confidence in Him.

"Be still", the psalmist had commanded. Peter obeyed the command. He was still. "And know that I am God", was the promise given though the psalmist, a promise which Peter proved to be reliable and trustworthy. "Now I know ...", he said, and in saying it, encouraged all of us who are in trouble as he was, with no human hope of help. The psalmist's God was Peter's God, and He is our God too. We shall gather fresh proofs that He is the great Reality if we can learn the essential lesson of quietness and confidence. "Be still, and know that I am God."

~Harry Foster~

(The End)