Growing up, the word servant didn’t have a positive connotation. It wasn’t fun to lose a contest with your brother, and then you had to be his servant for a day. That meant making his bed and making his lunch. The servants in the books I read worked long hours and didn’t seem to have lives of their own. The positive side of serving wasn’t included in conversations and I often felt that being a servant was a gloomy, sad, hard life. Interesting how God shows us just how wrong we can be in our thinking.
In the twelfth chapter of Acts, we are told that Herod Aggripa had James killed and then arrested Peter because it pleased the Jews. The reaction of the church to Peter’s arrest was fervent (intense and constant) prayer, meeting together to pray for Peter.
“Now when Herod was about to bring him [Peter] out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, ‘Dress yourself and put on your sandals.’ And he did so. And he said to him, ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.’ And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting,’” Acts 12:6-12.
Peter then went to a home where he knew that Christians would probably be praying for him. He knocked on the gate which admitted people from the street into a courtyard. The servant girl, Rhoda, answered the knocking. She was aware of the prayer meeting inside the house and the reason for it. She was probably a participant. When she looked out, she saw Peter standing there. “ Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, ‘You are out of your mind.’ But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, ‘It is his angel!’” Acts 12:14-15.
The answer to their prayers was standing outside the gate and Rhoda’s joy overpowered her sensible thinking and she left him there, running to tell the good news to others. God had answered their prayers! He answered so dramatically, they couldn’t believe it. And all the while, Peter continued knocking at the door.
Have you had times when serving that you’ve wondered why you had to be the one doing the work? Perhaps working in the kitchen while the speaker you’d love to hear shared her stories with the others? Ever thought, “Someone has to serve, but why is it always me?” God puts us where we are for a reason, even though it may not be our choice. Rhoda was the first to experience the joy of the miracle of Peter’s release because of where God had placed her – as a servant girl.
Taking it Further:
Do you have a story to share of when God gave you the blessing as you served in the background? How can Rhoda’s story encourage you as you serve?
