Are You Truly There in Prayer

Acts 16: v23- 34

One of my biggest dilemmas is being clear about what is God’s responsibility and what is ours.  It reduces down to what God expects of us and what we can expect of him.  My fear is that  I often get the two mixed up, and I sense I am not the only one, so Acts 16 holds some real life-lessons for us all.

At the start of the evening Paul and Silas are in the Philippian prison, apraying and asinging. If I take my stained glass spectacles off that is fairly arresting. For when are we most likely to praise and worship God? When it’s hard or when it’s easy? However I feel today, should I not lay time aside to pray and praise? But will I choose to be truly there?

When asked what the biggest problem in prayer was, Archbishop Rowan Williams replied that it was not the absence of God, ‘but the absence of me’. Being present with the present God - Our responsibility.

Then everything falls about them and the doors open....providing a line for a catchy hymn... My question is, why do they stay put? Couldn’t they have accepted this as a supernatural intervention to release them? Hadn’t Peter been released from prison in Jerusalem miraculously? Could this not be evidence that God really does release the captives? I wonder if something like this happened today whether it might not begin an international ministry [book, dvd, cd tie-in] for those released.

You can imagine the strap lines: ‘ Praising God brings release from chains..’ etc etc.
But here’s the thing; Paul and Silas seem to know that they should stay put. Just because God miraculously released Peter, it doesn’t mean He will always do the same. Their responsibility is to discern in this particular situation how they should best react.

This demands we are current with God - not living by formulas, x + y = z solutions, but being present with the present God. For our universal God always works in particular ways. The Spirit always has an address.

In and around God is more reality and life than anywhere else. Have we ever missed what God was doing because we second guessed it too early, going in as professionals who thought they knew because they had seen this before?

Paul and Silas act rightly and stay.  We must ask where do we need to stay put, even in hard situations? Where is God requiring us to stay?

Because they stay, the jailer and his family come to faith and the church in Philippi is born. That is something that only God can bring about, and constantly does. But he co-partners with those who are present with him and will risk discerning that he might be acting in unique ways in each and every situation.

The Revd Chris Russell is the vicar of St Laurence, Reading