October 14, 2022

Acts 16: 14 (NIV)

One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

I don’t believe I’m personally responsible for the salvation of every lost person with whom I come into contact. God is big enough not to need me.*

My parents worked for a couple of years with a mission church in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. One day my dad went to call on an elderly Choctaw man. When he arrived, the man was sitting on his front porch as if waiting for my dad to arrive. Before my dad could begin to talk to him, the man told him that he knew about the Lord; he had just been waiting for someone to come along and baptize him. Someone had planted and perhaps even watered so that all my dad had to do was pluck the fruit.

The same seems to have been true in the case of Lydia. While Paul was no doubt a dynamic and effective preacher, it really wasn’t his message that moved Lydia to respond. She already knew and worshipped God – the seed had been planted. Paul’s sermon was like a gentle spring rain, causing the seed to sprout and open up to the Holy Spirit’s leading. Her response was to be baptized – as if she was just waiting for the final piece of the puzzle. Just like the old Choctaw man. As someone has said, “The Holy Spirit will convict men of the truth; one does not have to be hit over the head with it.”*

  

We can’t tell when or if the seed that we plant is going to take root; we don’t know if we are overwatering or underwatering; we can’t see if the seed is germinating. It’s easy to become discouraged when we don’t see the results of our diligent gardening efforts but we must trust the Holy Spirit to work on the hearts of our little sprouts and reap the harvest. That is his job, not ours.

Paul didn’t preach to win arguments. He preached to win souls. He viewed conversion not as his work, but as the work of the Holy Spirit. So rather than depend on his persuasive powers, Paul depended on the Spirit’s power to bring people to Christ.*