Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Thoughts and Prayers was written by John Blaze.

You'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

If you hear those words, you might wonder if the person really means it. But you never

had to wonder when Edna Davis said them. Everyone in the small, one stoplight town knew of Miss

Edna's yellow legal pad, page after page, lined with name after name. Early each morning, the aging woman prayed out loud to God.

Not everyone on her list received the answer to prayer they wanted, but several testified at her

funeral that something God-sized had happened in their life, and they credited it to the earnest

prayers of Miss Edna. God demonstrated the power of prayer, and they credited it to the earnest prayers of Miss Edna.

God demonstrated the power of prayer in Peter's prison experience in the Book of Acts.

After the apostle was seized by Herod's men, thrown into prison, and then guarded by four

squads of four soldiers each, his prospects looked bleak, but the church

was earnestly praying to God for him.

They had Peter in their thoughts and prayers.

What God did is simply miraculous.

An angel appeared to Peter in prison, released him from his chains, and led him to safety beyond

the prison gates. It's possible, some may use thoughts and prayers without really meaning it,

but our father knows our thoughts, listens to our prayers, and acts on our behalf according to his perfect will.

To be prayed for and to pray for others is no small thing when we serve the great and powerful

God.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional scripture reading is from Acts chapter 12 verses 4 through 11.

After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each.

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