In Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. It was
brought about by providential circumstances. She was a seller of
purple, of the city of Thyatira, but just at the right time for
hearing Paul we find her at Philippi; providence, which is the
handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again, grace was
preparing her soul for the blessing--grace preparing for grace. She
did not know the Saviour, but as a Jewess, she knew many truths which
were excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her
conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she
went when prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard.
Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in
His house, but we have the greater reason to hope that He will when
we are in communion with His saints. Observe the words, "Whose heart
the Lord opened." She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not
do it; Paul did not do it. The Lord Himself must open the heart, to
receive the things which make for our peace. He alone can put the key
into the hole of the door and open it, and get admittance for
Himself. He is the heart's master as He is the heart's maker. The
first outward evidence of the opened heart was obedience. As soon as
Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of
a humble and broken heart, when the child of God is willing to obey a
command which is not essential to his salvation, which is not forced
upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a simple act of
obedience and of communion with his Master. The next evidence was
love, manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the
apostles. Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true
convert. Those who do nothing for Christ or His church, give but
sorry evidence of an "opened" heart. Lord, evermore give me an opened
heart.
