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At critical junctures along the pathway of our lives, we encounter doors that are either open or closed. We tend to perceive the open doors as an invitation or acknowledgement to proceed, and we often walk through them with excitement and expectation. However, we tend to look at closed doors quite differently. Those closed doors often represent to us something we really wanted to do or experience, and we respond to the closed door with disappointment – i.e. a missed job or life opportunity, a missed promotion, a missed adventure, etc. In those instances, we can sometimes mistakenly view God as a cosmic killjoy.
At those moments, we would do well to remember that He is God … and we aren’t. He can see what’s behind the closed door … and we can’t. He can see what’s on the road ahead … and we are blind to it. He knows what will ultimately be for our good and His glory … and we don’t. He sees the whole plan!
But before we become too hard on ourselves for our lack of faith, it’s worthy to note that we are in good company. Even the apostle Paul suffered from the disappointment of closed doors. As a matter of fact, one of the most significant series of closed doors he experienced was at a moment that marked the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the Gospel. Up to that point, the Gospel had not gone further west than Asia Minor. In fact, on the journey in question, Paul’s original intention had been to stay in Asia, but God had changed his plans through a series of closed doors. As a result, Paul was able to witness the salvation of the first person in Europe. All of those who would subsequently come to faith over the centuries in Europe would in fact come after her. And as we’ll see in a moment, her influence would not stop there. All as a result of closed doors!(1)
Philippi was a Roman colony in Macedonia situated ten miles inland from the port of Neapolis. Paul’s first stop in any town or village was always the synagogue, but there does not appear to have been a synagogue in Philippi. Jewish custom required that there be at least ten men for the founding of a synagogue, so apparently there were not ten Jewish men who lived there. However, there was a group of Jewish women, or more than likely, Greek Gentile proselytes, that gathered for prayer along the riverbank. It would appear that Paul’s call to Macedonia through his vision of a man, actually was God’s response to the prayers of a gathering of women!
One of those women – Lydia – was a successful merchant from Thyatira. She was a seller of purple cloth. There is no mention of Lydia having a husband, so we can presume that she was either a widow, or a freeborn single woman. She had apparently moved to Philippi in order to ply her trade. Thyatira was the trade center for indigo dyes, situated in Asia Minor. It was one of the cities that the Holy Spirit had prevented Paul and Silas from visiting. Later in Scripture, we discover that a church was planted in Thyatira.(2) Though Paul was never able to visit the city in any of his missionary journeys, God apparently had a different plan to establish His church there. And that plan may possibly have included Lydia to be the one to bring the Gospel back to her hometown.
God was already at work through His Holy Spirit drawing the women who were gathering in Philippi to Himself. Lydia had apparently already turned from the paganism of the world in which she lived, and was seeking to know and worship the one true God, even though she had not yet heard the Gospel. Lydia is a reminder to all of us that God will reveal Himself in the fullness of the Gospel to anyone who honestly seeks to know Him. He knows exactly what He is doing, and He knows exactly where the seeking hearts are. He will never shut Himself off from a willing seeking heart, and He will move heaven and earth to get to that seeking heart. As God told Israel through Moses: "If from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul."(3) God will always meet a seeking heart.
Lydia’s salvation story is also a great example of God’s providence and His care for believers. God rerouted Paul and his traveling companions, while at the same time He also ensured that Lydia would be in the right place at the right time to encounter Paul and hear the Good News of Jesus. But Lydia not only sought the Lord, she listened.
Some people have ears but they don't hear. An example is the situation on the road to Damascus – Saul heard the voice of Jesus and fell down, whereas his traveling companions perceived a voice but did not hear. That's too often the case. People hear without listening. While Jesus was on earth, He was often encountered by the Pharisees. They too heard, but they refused to listen. They were like people who choose to attend a concert or a great musical extravaganza wearing blinders and earplugs. They had no idea what was going on. They didn't see the truth when He stood in their presence and when He spoke, they didn’t listen to Him. But that’s not the case with Lydia.
As Paul was speaking, Lydia heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Lord opened her heart. As soon as she believed, Lydia was baptized, along with the rest of her household. She was obviously a woman of great influence – not only on others within her community, but also, upon her entire household. Whether “her household” refers only to her family, or if it included her servants, is unclear from the biblical account.
After Lydia’s conversion and baptism, she insisted that Paul and his friends come stay at her home, if they judged her to be “a true believer in the Lord.”(4) Luke says that “she urged us until we agreed,”(5) which indicates the fervency of her request. The missionaries did indeed judge Lydia to be a true believer, and her home became their place of lodging while they remained in Philippi. But her home became more than that – it also became the meeting place for that brand new church.
So, let’s relook at the guiding hand and empowering work of the Spirit of God through all of this. God closed door after door to lead Paul and his traveling companions to just the right place – at just the right time – to encounter just the right people. God worked in Lydia’s life to bring her to Philippi, and began to work in her heart that she might seek Him. Out of that small prayer gathering, a church was formed in Lydia’s home that became the launching pad for the Gospel throughout Europe and beyond. Eleven years later, Paul would write this church, while he was imprisoned in Rome, with this admonition: “I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”(6)
God began that good work through a series of closed doors then … and He still does so today. It would do us well to remember that truth the next time we encounter a closed door in our lives. Thank Him for the closed door knowing He has something even better up ahead as we continue the journey with Him!
By the way, if you would like to explore more of Lydia’s story, i invite you to check out my newest book, A Merchant Called Lydia, which releases this week. It’s the story of an ordinary woman God used in extraordinary ways. i invite you to consider her story – the portion you may already know … and the rest of the story that could have been. Click here to learn more about the book.
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This post is adapted from Until He Returns chapter 44, entitled “A Merchant Believes.” This sixth book in the Lessons Learned In The Wilderness series is available through Amazon in print or for your e-reader. Click HERE for more information on how you can obtain your copy of the book.
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(1) Acts 16:11-15 (NLT)
We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samothrace, and the next day we landed at Neapolis. From there we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed.
(2) Revelation 2:18
(3) Deuteronomy 4:29 (NIV)
(4) Acts 16:15 (NLT)
(5) Acts 16:15 (NLT)
(6) Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
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