Lydia, A Seller Of Purple…

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In July of 2012, our Senior Pastor was teaching from Acts 16 with the topic being A Day In The Life Of Paul.

And it was a solid practical application.

No surprise there.

And I was following along like everyone else.

But then…

…but then somewhere around verse fourteen I fell back from the rest of the congregation and heard four words as the Pastor read them, “A seller of purple”.

I loved that phrase, that title.

The color purple being a color of royalty.

Those who wear purple have historically been, women, royal, lovely, who carry themselves with confidence.

She, the woman, Lydia, which is a great name, was a seller of purple linens.

However, it was the rest of her description that further captured my thought.

“A seller of purple linens, and worshiper of God”.

And then it says, “she was listening and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.”

Why did the Lord open her heart?

Because she was listening.

 She was intent on learning.

She was focused on the possibility that her life was evolving beyond fabrics.

Beyond business.

That this man, Paul, was speaking truths of which she had not heard before.

Why?

Because she was a worshiper and she was listening.

We each want to hear from God.

 But before we can hear, we must worship and we must listen.

In order to listen we each have to quiet our spirit and block out all of the noise and position ourselves to listen.

This Lydia, who did listen, was found to be faithful.

This Lydia, a seller of purple.

Worshiped, listened and found her heart open.

John