Saturday, May 5, 2018

From Screens to Rivers

On the Sabbath day we went outside by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond…” Acts 16:13-14

I live in a community that use to be pure farmland. If I needed gas I knew I had better fill my tank before I came home unless I wanted to pay big bucks at the one place in our community. There were one or two grocery stores that constantly ran out of things because it served the entire community. There were unlit roads at night with trees standing thick at attention along the sides of the dark two-lane streets. Our most challenging traffic problems were dodging deer, helping a neighbor when their cows got loose, or removing a fallen tree off a road. The few restaurants that were out here would fill up on Sundays as the churches let out. It was truly a slow and relaxing time in our community. Fast forward to today and you will see a bustling part of Charlotte with bumper to bumper traffic all the time, and roads that now resemble race tracks. People don’t stop to talk to people, driver’s displaying road rage and trying to avoid pedestrians as they walk in front of cars reading their phones. Church bells have been replace with honking car horns with impatient drivers. I'm certain our community looks the same as most communities now.

What I love about Lydia is that she was an entrepreneur and was one in a man’s world at that. She probably had to work twice as long, and twice as hard to get a fair shake at succeeding in her business. And yet, she took the time to carve the Sabbath out of her busy and hectic life. She gathered with a group of women during the time that God instructed all people to do, making the Sabbath set apart. It wasn’t just an hour on Sundays, but it began on Friday evenings and went through Saturday evenings. Can you even imagine us cutting our phones off for 24 hours…shutting our computers down for a full day and spending time with our loved ones…taking those hours that God has instructed us to take and giving them back to Him. I know it seems impossible to set aside a full 24 hours, but I believe in our culture we can still take time with God throughout our day. He has gifted us with every hour and each breath that we take. Scripture states that during this time Lydia gave to the Lord, He opened her heart.

When the Lord opens a person’s heart it means that He has some things that need to be revealed…some love and encouragement that He desires to show…guidance for a decision that needs to be made. Lydia lived her life intentionally and understood the value of faith, family and friends. Most likely her success was due to the priorities she placed daily in her life. Even on our busiest day or our crowded surroundings, there will always be time to ‘go down by the river and find a place of prayer.’ It won’t happen by accident though, so we must be diligent in carving the time and space out just like Lydia did.

And who knows? The Lord just might open our heart and tell us what we have been waiting to hear for years.

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