Clear the Room
A while back, I was praying in my home office before a big decision. I had worship music playing, my Bible open, and my heart ready. But my phone kept lighting up. Texts. Emails. Group chats. Nothing bad, just a flood of little distractions. I paused for a second, then did something simple: I silenced my phone, flipped it over, and slid it across the desk.
And the room felt different.
It’s amazing how just clearing a little noise can shift the atmosphere. Suddenly, I wasn’t reacting, I was listening. I wasn’t flustered, I was focused.
That small moment reminds me of something Peter did in Acts 9. Except his room was full of something heavier than distractions, it was full of grief.
“Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying… Peter sent them all out of the room.” Acts 9:39–40 (NIV)
Tabitha had died, and the widows around her were devastated.
They did what grieving people do. They washed her body. They gathered in the upstairs room. They wept. Loudly. These were the women she had helped, the ones she had clothed, loved, and cared for. Now they stood in the same space where she once served them… only now, she was gone.
And I don’t blame them. These women were widows. They were used to losing people.
They knew how to mourn. They knew what it was like to say goodbye. Maybe too well.
But then Peter walked in. And he wasn’t shaped by loss. He was shaped by something else entirely, resurrection power.
Peter had seen Jesus raise the dead.
He was there when Jesus took a little girl by the hand and said, “Talitha koum.” (Which in Aramaic, means: “Little girl, I say to you, get up.”) He watched Jesus walk into impossible moments and bring life where there was none.
So Peter wasn’t shocked by death. But he also wasn’t stopped by it.
That’s why, when he saw the room full of grief and emotion, he asked everyone to step out.
It wasn’t rejection. It was discernment. Peter didn’t come to cry. He came to believe. And sometimes, belief needs room.
Because here’s the truth: Mourners are not always midwives.
Some people can cry with you… but they can’t carry the kind of faith needed to help birth what God wants to do next.
The widows weren’t wrong for weeping. Their love for Tabitha was real. Their pain was valid. But in that moment, Peter didn’t need emotion, he needed expectation.
It’s not that mourning is bad. It’s just that miracles usually don’t happen in a room full of doubt.
Jesus did this too, before raising Jairus’s daughter, He sent the crowd away. Why? Because sometimes, what God wants to do can’t break through the noise of people who aren’t ready to see it.
So how do we clear the room?
Discern the distractions. What’s taking up space in your heart and head right now? Sometimes it’s noise. Sometimes it’s negativity. Sometimes it’s a mindset you’ve gotten used to that God never asked you to carry.
Decide with courage. Clearing the room may mean making an uncomfortable decision, stepping away from opinions, drama, or doubt. Courage doesn’t always look loud. Sometimes it’s just quiet obedience.
Declare the atmosphere. Once you’ve cleared the room, fill it with faith. Play worship. Speak God’s promises out loud. Pray boldly. Set the tone. Faith doesn’t grow in silence, it grows in spoken expectation.
Sometimes we need to lovingly, wisely, and humbly clear the room. Not because we’re better, but because we’re believing for something more. Not everyone is built to stand with you in the miracle moment. And that’s okay.
And maybe the most powerful way to clear the room isn’t just with your words but with your prayer. With a quiet heart, surrendered posture, and bold belief that God is still in the business of bringing dead things back to life.
God, help me to know when to sit with grief and when to stand in faith. Give me the wisdom to protect the room, my heart, my thoughts, my environment, so Your power can move freely. Surround me with people who believe big, hope boldly, and expect You to do what only You can do. Amen.
Make It Personal:
What voices or influences might be crowding the space where God is trying to grow your faith?
Is there a situation in your life right now where you’ve been more surrounded by emotion than expectation?
Who do you need in the room with you when it’s time to believe for something big and who might need to step outside for a moment?
