What Makes a Prayer Earnest?

Praying is something most of us do all day long. Silently, out loud, over meals, at bedtime. Sometimes we murmur prayers without even realizing we're praying them. But prayers offered with faith, that's a different subject altogether.

What makes a prayer earnest? Does earnestness require faith, or can we bring a desperate, honest prayer to God while faith is largely left out?

Acts 12 is one of the clearest pictures of earnest prayers offered up with small faith, and it is one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture.

Peter's Impossible Situation in Acts 12

At the start of the chapter, James has just been killed by Herod, and Herod is about to take Peter's life as well. The church has gathered at Mary's home, begging God to save him. It is an impossible ask. Peter had already escaped Herod's clutches once just seven chapters earlier, and Herod is not about to let that happen again. He's backed into a political corner. James' death has made him popular with the Jews and Peter's earlier escape has embarrassed him. He needs this win.

So, he goes to extraordinary measures. Luke tells us Peter is guarded by four squads of soldiers, the Greek word tetradion meaning four, giving us sixteen Roman soldiers in total. They rotate in sets of eight: one squad patrolling the outer watch, two guards chained to Peter on either side, two more stationed at the entrance. The night before his execution, Peter is sleeping in that chain, flanked on both sides, with no realistic hope of escape.

The Church Praying at Mary's House

The church praying at Mary's house knows all of this. They are not naive about the odds. They have just buried James. Their faith is small and their grief is fresh. And still, they are there. Still praying. How could God overcome what Rome has set in motion? And why would he, when he hadn't intervened for James?

But God hears. And God acts in a way no one in that room would have thought to imagine.

God Sends an Angel Anyway

Because it is not yet time for Peter's ministry to end, God sends an angel to simply walk him out. Peter is sleeping so soundly the angel has to jab him in the side to wake him. Even then, Peter assumes he's seeing a vision. He does not believe the events he's watching are real. Yet God tends to every obstacle, and there were many, until Peter is standing alone in the street. Only then does it dawn on him: this actually happened.

Rhoda at the Gate — When Answered Prayer Feels Unbelievable

He goes immediately to Mary's house, where the church is still gathered, still praying. He knocks at the outer gate.

A servant girl named Rhoda comes to answer.

She recognizes Peter's voice, and in her excitement, forgets to open the gate. She turns and runs back inside to tell the others, leaving the man they've been praying for standing alone in the street.

This is one of my favorite moments in all of Scripture. Because what happens next is so profoundly, painfully human: not a single person inside believes her. They've been up all night begging God to save Peter's life, and when Rhoda insists he's at the door, they tell her she's out of her mind. When she keeps pushing, they land on an alternative explanation; it must be his ghost. The ghost of Peter strikes them as more plausible than the possibility that God did the very thing they asked him to do.

Why We Pre-Reject Our Own Prayers

And this is precisely where we find ourselves today.

We expect God to be distant and slow to act in the things we bring to him. Often, we choose not to ask at all, because we're afraid our faith is too small, too shaky, too full of doubt to be worth God's time. We pre-reject our own prayers.

God Hears Prayers Soaked in Doubt

But here is what Acts 12 quietly insists: our God hears the prayers of his children even when those prayers are soaked in doubt. The church praying at Mary's house was desperate and grieving and apparently not expecting much — and God busted Peter out of a Roman prison anyway. The prayers of the righteous avail much, even when those prayers are offered with very little faith.

What is man, that you are mindful of him?

Blessed, is what we are. Held by a God who does not require polished faith before he acts. Who hears us anyway, who moves anyway, who meets us at the door while we're still inside arguing about whether it's possible.