Prayer takes a long time. We pray for some things for many years—I think of prayers for family members who fight a debilitating disease or prayers for a person we love who has something for which there is no cure or effective treatment. Even when medical science cannot cure a loved one, the Good Shepherd walks with every one of his sheep no matter the path, and for this we pray, faithfully, regularly, sometimes faint-heartedly. We pray and it takes a long time.

In the prayer for the persecuted church group, we pray for the names of people so long that they become familiar to us even though we have never met. Leah Sharibu. Ken Elliot. Sara Atif. Zafar Bhatti. Yan Hwa. Imprisoned or kidnapped. We have a long list.

Prayer takes a short time. Just a few seconds while stopping at the traffic light. Maybe as you drift off to sleep, you only get half a sentence of thought in before the sandman takes over. Or we pray about something that’s happening today, in the next hour, at this very moment. We say the prayer and then it’s done. These are the sort that come to mind when we read the imperative to “pray without ceasing.”

I've been thinking about the long and short nature of prayer because of a Christian couple in Iran who had been sentenced to 11 years in prison. We have been praying for them by first name. Homayoun and Sara. They had been convicted of “founding or leading an organization that aims to disrupt national security” and “membership in organizations that aim to disrupt national security.” They were meeting with other Christians in a home, like a small group. Maybe neighbors heard them singing or praying.

About a month ago, we heard that they were going to have a retrial around Easter. So we have been praying about their retrial. And this week we heard the news that the judge had dismissed all charges.

The judge freed them, saying, “The reports by the officers of the Ministry of Intelligence about organization of home-groups to promote Christianity, membership, and participation in home-groups, are not considered as acts against the country’s security, and the law has not recognized them as criminal activity.” Gathering together with people of the same faith is not a criminal act, but a natural part of faith. This from a judge in Iran.

I confess it was difficult to believe, but the news of this release brings joy.

Imagine being imprisoned for having a small group meeting in your home, being a counselor at Dickson Valley or Honey Rock camps, hosting a Backyard Bible Club. The message of Jesus’ love molds us so even when we face grief-induced responses to children or grandchildren making choices or facing illnesses that we never thought possible, we somehow pray for the strength and wisdom to respond as Jesus would, as he would have us respond. But some families do not respond in such a way. Faced with the news of a spouse or a child or a parent coming to Christ, in some places, instead of rejoicing, there is shaming, shunning, even violence and sometimes even murder. When Jesus comes into some places, he is met with hatred and violence.

But nothing stops Jesus. Not police or military or secularists or even our own sin. Jesus looked into the cup. He looked at the elixir of all the sin of everyone, the folly and shame and hatred. He prayed for another way.

Jesus also prayed for the Father's will be done, so he drank the cup, he drank it all. I can barely stomach my own sin, though sometimes I think I manage to manage it. There are plenty of sins I don’t even realize I’m committing, until the Spirit brings them to mind. Oh brother, again? Jesus doesn’t say that. I think that, but he doesn’t. He drinks the cup. My freedom is one hundred percent on him. He did so in prayer, in the garden, while his devoted followers nodded off to sleep.

Laws and walls do not contain the Spirit. When people are hurt, in jail, kidnapped, confined to a body or a mind that doesn’t work the way it should, the Spirit finds them and is with them. Prayer fits in here, somehow. Jesus is with them, and through prayer, maybe we are, too. We don’t need to understand how, only that we can be a part of God’s work through prayer.

We pray as we love—through a darkened glass. Even our prayers need God’s help to get through. The Bible tells us of Jesus going off by himself to pray. Sometimes we pray on the fly. Driving to work, before we go into a meeting, at the beginning or end of something, before our meals, when we go to bed and when we wake. It’s okay if it’s sometimes a struggle. The Spirit helps us.

Prayer is the gospel in jars of clay, human flesh doing what human flesh cannot do. The surpassing knowledge goes beyond our wildest dreams. Rhoda’s cameo appearance in Acts 12 reminds us of this.

The chapter begins with Peter in prison, and the “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.” (verse 5) A knocking at the door intruded on the prayer meeting, so Rhoda did what a servant does—she went to answer the knock, but she didn’t open the door. Instead, she ran to tell the others that Peter was standing at the gate—and they thought she was nuts.

And now, as I am about to send this, news of Ken Elliot, a missionary in his seventh year of captivity, released and reunited with his family. Some of us thought he must be dead by now, but we kept on.

Like Rhoda, eventually, with much joy, we tell others what God has done and we open the door and let Peter in. With the news of Homayoun and Sara and Ken, I say to you, “They are free.” And like our brothers and sisters at that prayer meeting, we are amazed.

Amazed at a God who hears and answers our prayers, a God who fills those jars of clay with the fragrant offering of his Son, that spills out in love and kindness and generosity to a hurting world that longs for the sweet sound of amazing grace.

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 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!’ But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. Acts 12:12-16