Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: November 20

“And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying” ~ Acts 12: 11-12

Peter had just been delivered from prison by an angel of the Lord. Delivered completely and lovingly. The angel even took time to remind Peter to put on his coat and shoes. “… bind on thy sandals… cast thy garment about thee.” Our God delivers completely and cares for all the details important to our well-being as He does it.

Peter is out of prison, standing in the street, a free man. The angel has gone and it is just dawning on Peter what has happened. He has been delivered. “Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath … delivered me.”

Here is the word to us. We need to “come to” and realize and declare, first to ourselves, what God has done. If He has just given you eternal life, express it to yourself. If He has just delivered you from a sinful habit, remind yourself what He has done.

Then, “consider” it. Meditate upon it. Let it become a part of you. The sin was a part of you. Now, let the joy-filled fact of the deliverance become a part of you too. Begin to get accustomed to it. Dwell on it. Rejoice in it. “And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house … where many were gathered together praying.” Here is the next personal word to us. Once we let deliverance become a reality to us, no-one has to tell us to go where other Christians meet together. It takes varying lengths of time for the realization of deliverance to “soak in” on us, and human beings must not push. But once it is real, we do as Peter did. We simply go where people pray.

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, am I in the midst of them”