Day 55 — Freedom Is Coming

Acts 12:12-16
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. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognised Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

And so, as I mentioned yesterday, I had become very lost. Lost in 219 square miles of the New Forest. After nearly 2 hours, I arrived at yet another padlocked gate but in the distance I could see humans! As people walked past and asked if I was ok, I explained that I had driven into the forest and now couldn’t get out. The first person responded by saying it was impossible to drive into the forest and they had no idea how to get out. The second person said exactly the same. This baffled me - I was in the forest, in my car, the wrong side of a locked gate. It clearly wasn’t impossible!

The third person, a man walking his dog, said he couldn’t help but his wife knew how to get out. ‘Great, is your wife here?’, I asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘But if you are still here when she next walks the dog, she’ll tell you what to do.’ I was guessing her arrival wouldn’t be imminent – how many times a day do you walk a dog in a forest? Feeling slightly anxious, I felt my only option was to call the police. On their arrival, they too didn’t know how to get out, so their only option was for one of them to go back to the station to try and find a key.

When God intervenes and Peter miraculously escapes from prison, he goes to a house where some of the church are gathered, praying for his release. Yet when he arrives, their reaction probably isn’t what he was expecting. Rhoda is that excited to hear his voice that she forgets to let him in and, when she tells the others that Peter is at the door, they react by telling her she is out of her mind and it is probably his spirit!

And yet the very thing they were praying for had just happened.

Of all the people I met in the forest, no-one responded in the way I was hoping. I wanted them to give me the answers, to get me out, to be kind and yet they made me feel like I was going a little mad! Even the policeman commented, ‘Mary, is anyone actually going to believe you?’.

Sometimes we can go to everyone else before we go to God. Family, friends, groups, organisations are all brilliant and God is always using the community around us. But God is the one that unlocks the gate, who can set us free. If you feel stuck today, possibly trapped or imprisoned, go to the one that holds the key – and believe that freedom is coming.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, whatever I face today and in the coming weeks, let my first thoughts be of you. Help me to hold onto the greatness and power of your love.

Mary Grinham
Leadership Team