07.02.2014 New Testament: Acts 10.31–33

To read the Bible in a year, read Acts 10.24–48 on July 2, In the year of our Lord 2014

By Don Ruhl

You pray with all your heart, pouring out your soul to God, pleading with Him to hear your petitions. How does that affect Him?

Acts 10 shows that it affects Him greatly. At that point in the history of the church, the preachers and teachers only spoke to Jews, but clear back in Genesis 12.3, the Lord had promised that through Abraham all the families of the Earth would be blessed. Therefore, Acts 10 shows a Gentile, a non-Jew, praying and this served as a reminder to the Lord that the time was right for all the families of the Earth to experience the blessing of Abraham as experienced in Jesus Christ. The Lord sent an angel to the praying Gentile. That Gentile reported to Peter, a Jew, what the angel said,

“‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.’ So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God” (Acts 10.31–33). 

After the Lord did a few more things, Peter finally realized that he and the rest of the church needed to start going to the Gentiles, and the world has never been the same since, all because a man prayed to God.