Please read the passage before reading the comments.
Peter and John had gone to the temple for prayer. They had cuffed a lame person. They had been arrested, warned and released. Our narrative begins as the two apostles return to their community.
The community response with them, then praises God who enabled their community to proclaim the word of God boldly. The prayer is praise and thanksgiving to God. There is no thought being given to punish or harm those involved is the arrest or persecution of the community. It is all praise to God and a request that God continue to strengthen the community to remain faithful to God.
In adversity we tend not to praise God. We tend rather to concentrate on what is happening to us and ask God to destroy or annihilate those who are troubling us. The community’s prayer, which we should emulate, would have us pray that God glorified and that we remain boldly able to continue the work God has given us. Those who harass, persecute, or make things difficult for us are not our enemies for us to destroy; they are people sent to test us in our faithfulness to God.
Even those who oppose us on national and international levels are not enemies, but challengers to remind us of our commitments to ourselves and the world. Wars and conflicts are not solutions to our problems. Tey are signs of the failure in solving problems
Perhaps our daily prayer should be that God bless each and every one who opposes us. Our example is that God bless the neighbor down the street, the co-worker, the .fellow parishioner, the mayor, the governor, the President, the leaders and people of Russia, of the Holy Lands, of China.
Prayer does change situations. Firstly, it changes us by replacing negative thought with positive thoughts. Secondly, it changes the situation and invites the other parties to react differently. Prayer also acknowledges that our adversaries do exist and deserve to be recognized as existing as much as we have the right to existence.
Prayer opens us up to experiencing the wonder of Gpd’s plan for each of us. Prayer calls us to humility ands faithfulness. We have good example of how to interact with adversity in the story of Peter, Joh, and their community.