There’s an interesting narrative in the 12th chapter of Acts about Peter in prison. On the night before he was to be brought to trial, the Bible says that he was asleep between 2 soldiers and bound with 2 chains. Verse 6 also mentions that there were guards in front of the door watching over the prison.
I’m convinced that all the details were to drive home how impossible it would have been for Peter to escape, but what grabbed my attention was the fact that Peter was sleeping. I’m positive that this would make for a great message about the depth of peace we can have even while in captivity, but when I noticed verse 7, I sensed the Lord revealing something different.
An angel literally had to strike Peter to wake him up because Peter missed the part where the dark cell suddenly filled with heavenly light. Even after that, the angel had to tell Peter to get up, and not just get up, but get up quickly. That’s when the chains fell off.
Have we grown too comfortable in our chains? Have we allowed the things that imprison us to become the very things that identify us? Has anxiety become our identity? Has offense become our narrative? Have we allowed bitterness to grow from a root to a residence? Are we sleeping between our captors when we should be watching for our deliverer?
The Lord is shaking His sleepy church because the light has yet to wake us, and as we open our eyes and try to make sense of it all, He speaks but 3 words, “Get up quickly.”
It’s time to move, and as we do, the chains of who and where we were will fall off, and we’ll find freedom to step into the wide open places that we were made for.
