Streams in the Desert December 30 Daily Devotional

Peter was kept in prison: but prayer (instant and earnest prayer)

was made for him (Acts 12:5, margin).
Peter was in prison awaiting his execution. The Church had neither human power nor influence to save him. There was no earthly help, but there was help to be obtained by the way of Heaven. They gave themselves to fervent importunate prayer. God sent His angel, who aroused Peter from sleep and led him out through the first and
second wards of the prison; and when they came to the iron gate, it opened to them of its own accord, and Peter was free.
There may be some iron gate in your life that has blocked your way.
Like a caged bird you have often beaten against the bars, but
instead of helping, you have only had to fall back fired, exhausted and sore at heart. There is a secret for you to learn, and that is
believing prayer, and when you come to the iron gate, it win open
of its own accord. How much wasted energy and sore disappointment
will be saved if you will learn to pray as did the Church in the
upper room! Insurmountable difficulties will disappear, adverse
circumstances will prove favorable if you learn to pray, not with
your own faith but with the faith of God (Mark 11:22, margin).
Souls in prison have been waiting for years for the gate to open;
loved ones out of Christ bound by Satan, win be set free when you pray till you definitely believe God. --C. H. P.
Emergencies call for intense prayer. When the man becomes the prayer nothing can resist its touch. Elijah on Carmel, bowed down on the ground, with his face between his knees, that was
prayer--the man himself. No words are mentioned. Prayer can be too tense for words. The man's whole being was in touch with God, and
was set with God against the powers of evil. They couldn't
withstand such praying. There's more of this embodied praying needed. --The Bent-knee Time.
"Groaning which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused." --C. H. Spurgeon.