11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place. Acts 12:11-16

The scene is almost comical, isn’t it? “Let me in!” Peter seemed to be saying. “Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s probably a vacuum cleaner salesman!” We’ve read this passage many times and it’s still humorous. Two things about the scenario stood out to me.

Just curious, what were those disciples praying for in the middle of the night? I suspect Peter was in their prayers. If so, how were they praying?

You don’t get such direct answers to prayer than this. And yet they were surprised by it. This just begs the question all around: do we believe God will answer our prayers or do we have a specific way we think He’ll answer them. It’s something to consider next time you sit down to pray.