The pages of the web site Voice of Martyrs are filled with men and women who are imprisoned for their faith. I am sure that this is of no surprise to you the reader. For generations, Christians have been imprisoned and martyred for their faith. Acts 12 tells us how King Herod had James brother of John killed and when he realized that this pleased the Jews, he imprisoned several other Christians, including Peter. The church’s response was prayer.
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Acts 12:5
And the result of prayer was:
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 brothers about this," he said, and then he left for another place. Acts 12:17
Prayer works today as well. A few months back, one of our church members traveled to his home country where Christians are imprisoned for their faith. He had been working underground with the local church and was on his way back to us when his Christian activities were revealed and he was thrown into prison. As Christians throughout the ages have done, we prayed for his release and God provided him release from prison.
Prisons are sometimes not made of physical bars but of our own emotional problems, addictions and fears. These type of prison bars are equally confining to those made of steel. They can keep us from fulfilling our destiny in Christ.
I don’t think that the parallels between these two types of prisons stop there. I think that just as prayer can grant us freedom from physical prisons, so can prayer release us from the emotional and spiritual prisons.
Lord help us to break free from anything that might stand in our way of serving you and fulfilling our destiny in you.
