Acts 12 Who's Peter?

Acts 12: 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.

I so wish I could say that I'm some awesome Christian. I wish I could drone on about how every morning I get up like Jesus did and spend hours praying and in God's Word. "I'm a night person", was my excuse. Ok then, so my nights are filled with praying and God's Word? Nope... It's filled with TV. I thank God for my wife because she has been my spiritual water carrier for way too long. If left up to me to be the spiritual leader of our household then who knows where we'd be. My beautiful loving wife has gotten up early and studied and prayed. Prayed for our family, for me to be a Godly man. Maybe for me to just one day wake up and finally help her lift the weight of being spiritual leader. I've been so lax, just watching tv, playing on the computer, filling my time with everything But prayer and the Word. Giving it all lip service. Want to know who's Peter? I'm Peter as are many of you.

Chapter 12 finds Peter in prison and heavily guarded. I'm going to use me as an example because I so fit the role of sinner. So here I am in prison. Prison of sin. Prison of TV. Prison of doing everything to get out of being serious about God. So who's guarding and chaining me? That would be my 'friends' guarding me. Going along and keeping me there. Chains are the distractions. So Here I am just sleeping away. When the Angel of the Lord woke me/Peter. The Angel is pretty much the same, except for me it was more the Holy Spirit. He led me out of the prison before I even knew it, Bam! There I was outside the prison thinking it was all a dream but it's as real as it can get. He runs to the people who have been praying for his release and at first they really can't believe it. My wife who has been praying for me earnestly and constantly can't believe that I finally WANT to get up and read and pray with her. I think it's so awesome that Peter wasn't even praying... just snoozing away, but there were so many interceding on his behalf. I can hear Charity right now thinking.... wow he finally gets up once and he wants a standing ovation by writing about it on the blog? No, not at all. I just thought this really related to me exactly where I am. I'm not saying I'm a Peter. I'm saying that I'm making a stand to become a better Christian to walk closer with my Savior AND praying for my family. I want people to realize that they are not alone in the disfunctional/lazy part and that it is possible to break the chains. Not possible through yourself, but the angel of the Holy Spirit can give you the victory. I pray our lives are changed and that we can make such a move for Jesus. I think that we must start one by one to put aside our toys of distraction as fun as we thought they were and get serious. I want in on the excitement of dreaming dreams and prophesying during the last days. I want in on making a change in people's lives and bringing them to Jesus.

It's not about salvation or getting us to believe. Salvation is guaranteed to all who accept and pray to get Jesus in to their hearts, and I believe that's pretty much all of us. It's about not being satisfied with the minimum requirements of salvation. I don't want a taste... I want the whole meal of Christ. I want it for all of us because I just can't imagine the power for Christ we'll have with us being full of the Spirit and living for him. It excites me to no end.