Pray Like It Matters More Than Anything Else

What do you do when there’s nothing else you can do?

That’s the question the early church faced in Acts 12. One of their beloved leaders, James, had just been executed. Peter—perhaps the most visible and important figure in the church at the time—was arrested and awaiting his own public execution. And there was nothing the church could do to help him.

No jailbreak. No meal train. No public pressure campaign or way to intervene. There was nothing the church could do to help Peter at all.

So what did they do?

They prayed.

And they didn’t just pray casually. Luke tells us, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (Acts 12:5). The word “earnest” means stretched-out, unrelenting, desperate. These weren’t polite, quiet prayers whispered as people went about their lives. These were bold, fervent, full-hearted cries to the God who alone could act.

And He did.

In one of the most miraculous moments in Scripture, an angel shows up in Peter’s prison cell, violently awakens him (because, remarkably, Peter was asleep!), and walks him out past multiple armed guards and through an iron gate that opens on its own. Peter is free—not because the church had a plan, but because the church had a God who responds to prayer.

The irony, of course, is that when Peter shows up at the very house where the church is praying for him, they’re so surprised that they almost leave him in the street. The answer to their prayer was knocking on the door, and they couldn’t believe it. How often are we the same way?

We ask God to work, but we don’t expect Him to. We beg for a miracle, then react with shock if one happens. Yet Acts 12 reminds us: we serve a God who hears and responds. Not always in the way we expect—but always in the way He knows is right.

So here’s the invitation: Pray like it matters. Not just because prayer is our last resort, but because it’s our first and best response to crisis. Pray like God is listening—because He is. Pray like your life depends on it—because sometimes it does.

Don’t let desperation drive you to despair. Let it drive you to your knees.

God still moves when His people pray.