[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-1230":3},"DECEMBER 30\r\nPeter was kept in prison: but prayer (instant and earnest prayer)\r\n\r\nwas made for him (Acts 12:5, margin).\r\nPeter 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\r\nsecond wards of the prison; and when they came to the iron gate, it opened to them of its own accord, and Peter was free.\r\nThere may be some iron gate in your life that has blocked your way.\r\nLike a caged bird you have often beaten against the bars, but\r\ninstead 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\r\nbelieving prayer, and when you come to the iron gate, it win open\r\nof its own accord. How much wasted energy and sore disappointment\r\nwill be saved if you will learn to pray as did the Church in the\r\nupper room! Insurmountable difficulties will disappear, adverse\r\ncircumstances will prove favorable if you learn to pray, not with\r\nyour own faith but with the faith of God (Mark 11:22, margin).\r\nSouls in prison have been waiting for years for the gate to open;\r\nloved ones out of Christ bound by Satan, win be set free when you pray till you definitely believe God. --C. H. P.\r\nEmergencies 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\r\nprayer--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\r\nwas set with God against the powers of evil. They couldn't\r\nwithstand such praying. There's more of this embodied praying needed. --The Bent-knee Time.\r\n\"Groaning which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.\" --C. H. Spurgeon.",1783499794605]