Day 168

1 Kings 2:13-3:15, Acts 11:19-12:19, Proverbs 15:1-10

I know that some people struggle with different bits of the Bible. There are many different parts that it is either easy or hard for us to interact with. There is all the historical stuff about kings and prophets (and other people like that) which is not that much different for us to understand than the history of Queen Victoria or William Shakespeare. There is then the story of the life and ministry of Jesus, things that we can grapple with because we know what Jesus has done in our own lives, we know all about His death because he died for us, it is a personal part of the story. Then there are parts like the angel leading Peter out of prison. Stuff that it is quite hard to grasp because we just can’t get our head round it. Doors flying open of their own volition?!

Timothy tells us though that “all scripture is God breathed” and whether that is the point at which Christ dies on a cross or whether it is the point that an angel leads Peter out of prison, it is all of God. I would have perhaps once placed myself in the sceptical pile, until I started to witness what the Spirit does in the here and now, until I had witnessed healing take place, until I heard people I trusted speak of real encounters with angels. When it is hard for us to physically see something before us, it is hard for us to understand it. Yet sometimes we have to make that leap of faith. We do not know how God created the universe, but we know he did it. We do not know how Jesus defeated death and rose from the dead, but we know for certain he did it. We do not know how the angel will come from God and get us out of this or that predicament, but we know that when we put our faith in Him, He will triumph through.

It ties in with the passage from 1 Kings of the God who sends abundant blessings. There are a lot of people who could take a leaf out of Solomon’s book. Jesus said “don’t pray like those hypocrites” and could well have said – “pray like Solomon”. Solomon’s prayer was humble and in line with the will of God and not the will of man. If you are told that you can pray for whatever you like, what would it be? Go on – be honest!

There is a hymn, “Be thou my vision”, based on an 8th Century Irish poem which has the line “riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise”. This was Solomon’s prayer, no riches, no high status, just wisdom to do the will of God, to rule his people as God wants.

Acts shows us that God can do anything, including things that we struggle to get our heads round. Prayer is the key, we just need to pray with wisdom!