Peter and Kohn have gone through what can only be considered a traumatic experience. They were arrested, brought forward in front of this council and asked questions and interrogated. They were afraid for their life.
It's interesting the very first
thing they chose to do after that trauma is go to church. They went to church, they went to their community of faith, to the people whom they
could trust to hold dear their problems. Peter and John go and share their anxieties and worries.
Their very first response to this traumatic event was to go and to be with those who
shared God with them. The community listened. That's the first thing - they listened to Peter and John's experience.
Peter and John must have been honest about what their experience was like - they must
have said "you know, this was awful. This is terrible." You know the community listened because they know exactly what to pray.
The community prayed together. They didn't pray immediately for John and Peter's needs. They didn't immediately go in and say "well God you know Peter and John just need
this and this and this and this."
The first thing they did was remind themselves of the times God had shown up.God had shown up throughout history. God had been there in these sort of similar moments. God knew what they were experiencing. Instead of asking for things, the community reminded themselves God knew what they were feeling.
God knew the depths of their pain. God knew all of those things and God had been there before. They reminded themselves God had been present and God saw them through those
times.
Then, they prayed for the things were on their hearts.
I wonder how different our prayer life would look if that's how we approached prayer. if
our first approach to prayer was to sit and to listen to ourselves or sit and listen to others and to be honest about where we were and what what our needs were. Then, only then, do we go to God and remind ourselves of the time in our lives or in other lives that God has been present in a similar situation. Then our last prayer was about the things that we needed.
I wonder how different our prayer life would be if that were our approach.
God bless