LET YOUR WILL BE DONE – Part 2
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Laat U wil geskied – Deel 2”
Translator: Robin Barker
In this, the second of my writings, in the short series: “Let Your Will Be Done” to start with I want to share with you one example from the Word where our Lord did not answer the people’s prayers and then shortly afterwards answered the same people’s prayers through supernatural means.
We read:
ACTS 12:1-10
1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.
2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.
4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.
7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him.
9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
First James was arrested and was locked up in jail and Jesus’s followers, which also included John his brother, prayed and our Lord still allowed Herod to execute James.
Then Herod also put Peter in jail to be executed. Jesus’s followers, which also included John the brother of James, prayed and our Lord sent an angel to rescue Peter from jail.
It is also very interesting, that in Peter’s case, when you read further, that you see that most of the followers who prayed for Peter did not even believe that our Lord would allow the case to be heard.
Many of their thoughts still dwelt on the execution of James.
We read:
ACTS 12:11-15
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.”
I know that many things happen around and to me, but I do not allow them to upset me, or trouble me spiritually.
The satan attacks me enough, that I will not permit him to make me question my Redeemer and Saviour’s way of doing things.
As I have said many times, I will now say it again –
I believe and follow our Lord like a child.
He teaches me through His Word how to accomplish this and there are many good reasons why He says that I must believe in Him and how I must follow Him, so that is how I do it.
In closing I want to encourage you by sharing the following from the Word:
MARK 10:15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
If I do not understand what or why our Lord has done something, be it through His hand or His action or allowing something to happen, I trust His loving heart through which He sent Jesus to walk the road to Golgotha on my behalf and the loving heart of Jesus who walked the road to Golgotha on my behalf.
JOHN 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
JOHN 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
In closing I want to leave with you the following thoughts from the Word:
ISA 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.
ISA 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
ISA 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.ECL 5:6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? (Do what you can as a child of our Lord and leave that which you cannot do, in belief, in the hands of our Lord.)
Of this you can absolutely be assured:
That which has happened, or will happen, fits perfectly into our Lord’s perfect plan and that is actually for me as a child of our Lord what will matter throughout my life.
Greetings,
Sakkie