“But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.”
Acts 12:16 (NIV)
In Acts 12, Peter is at the door and Rhoda is so overjoyed she can’t even open it. She hears his voice and runs back in with a praise report: Peter is outside. Our prayers have been answered! Like Jesus said, blessed are those like Rhoda who only hear and believe, who don’t have to see with their eyes to have faith.
But the believers who haven’t seen him yet and haven’t heard Peter’s voice tell the servant girl she’s out of her mind. Yet she insisted. She did not let go of the praise report. Then they finally come, open the door, and they see Peter. In verse 14 there’s excitement when they hear, but in verse 16 there’s amazement when they see. Peter even has to motion for them to quiet down, because their amazement and astonishment looked like praise.
Depending on what glasses you read this story through, you might assume they didn’t have faith Peter could be released. I don’t think that’s it. I believe they were praying in faith, but they were just praying for something else. God answered over and above their prayers. While they’re knocking on heaven’s door, God is knocking on their door. The answer is standing there, at risk of going back to jail, while they stand around trying to understand it instead of opening the door to their heart and letting God’s answer come in. I think God’s answer was better than their prayer.
When you look at Mark 6:51, the word astonished is used when the disciples have just seen Jesus and Peter walk on water. Then, when you read it in Matthew 14, this astonishment results in praise as the disciples exclaim, “Jesus, you’re the Son of God.” Today I’m convicted to be alert and ready to open the door when God is knocking and answering. Don’t just continue to ask, seek, and knock for a specific answer and ignore God’s answer. When we open the door to heaven’s knock and see what God has done, we need to pause and be amazed, let our astonishment look like praise, and like Peter go testify what God is doing so somebody else’s faith gets strengthened while they’re still knocking.