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Today, we're reading Acts 12 through 14, answering the question,

how does Acts 12 show God's power working through both unanswered and answered prayers, as well as the question, what does

God's power look like when his answers don't match our expectations? Now, if you've ever sat

in a hospital waiting room, you know what it's like to pray with your whole heart and still

not know what God will do, to still not know the outcome.

Two families might be sitting just a few chairs apart, both praying for a miracle.

One gets good news, the other gets a doctor with tears in his eyes.

And somehow, both are told that God is good.

Acts 12 can feel a lot like that waiting room. James is executed,

Peter is rescued. Both lives are in God's hands, both prayers are heard, and both stories become

part of how the gospel moves forward. It's a chapter that forces us to wrestle honestly with the

question, what does God's

power look like when his answers don't match our expectations? Acts 12 reminds us that the same God

who parts prison doors also hold the hearts of his saints when the doors never open. If we don't

understand how God's power works through both answered and unanswered prayers,

we'll start to equate his goodness with the outcomes, the outcomes we experience.

And when our prayers don't turn out the way we hoped, our faith can quietly start to erode.

We stop praying boldly.

We stop expecting God to move.

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