Acts 16:13-15 “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. (14) Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. (15) And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." So she persuaded us.”
We have seen thus far that one of the ingredients that must be present for someone to be saved is that they must be able to understand the message of the gospel that is proclaimed. We have also seen that hardened hearts is the stumbling block that prevents many from being able to understand that message. So the question is then raised, how do people overcome the problem of having a hardened heart? The answer to that question is simple, they can’t. It is only God who can open their hearts to understand the message of the gospel, and unless He does that their hearts remain hardened and they cannot understand it. The above passage of scripture describes that exact truth to us, for in this passage we see the apostle Paul preaching the gospel to a number of women in the city of Philippi, and yet only Lydia responded to his message and was saved. So why did Lydia respond whereas the other women with her, who heard the exact same message, did not respond? This passage tells us the reason why, for it declares to us that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. In other words the Lord gave Lydia understanding of the gospel message preached by Paul, because of which she was able to exercise her faith in that message and thus she was born-again. And so we see that all three ingredients were present in Lydia’s case, i.e. she heard the message of the gospel, she understood the message of the gospel, and she could therefore exercise faith in that message. The main point that I wanted to highlight from this passage of scripture though is that unless the Lord had opened Lydia’s heart she would have responded in the same way as the other women with her, i.e. she would have remained unsaved.
Michael E.B. Maher
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