A Saturday Sister: Lydia

                      . . . . . .  on the Sabbath day we went out of the city
                      gate to the riverside, where we supposed there  was a
                    place for prayer. There we sat down and spoke to the
                    women who had assembled. One of our hearers was a 
                    woman named Lydia. . . . .  She was already a believer 
                    in God, and she opened her heart to accept Paul’s words. 
                    When she and her household had been baptised, she 
                    appealed to us, saying, “If you are satisfied that I am a 
                    true-believer in the Lord, then come down to my house 
                    and stay there.” And she insisted on our doing so.
                                                                                         Acts 16:13-15

 What are you hungry for?

  Paul had a problem.
  He knew God had called him to preach the Good News, but everywhere he tried to go, "the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them".
  Huh?

  Sensitive to the Spirit's leading, Paul & Company continued westward,  coming at last into the new territory of Europe.
   

  Do you want to be fed? Do you feed yourself spiritually?  Or do you make opportunities for God to care for you?

  Lydia was a businesswoman. She sold purple cloth for rich people, and apparently did very well at it.
  Jewish in faith, on the Sabbath she sought God, not more income.   Without worship leaders, it would have been easy to sleep in -  or have business as usual.
  Paul and Company, not finding a synagogue in Philippi, found a small study group of spiritually hungry women.

  So the traveling preacher met the woman who "treasured the words of His mouth more than (her) necessary food."
  And exciting things happened.  
  Paul's time in Philippi was short and tempestuous.  We don't know what happened to Lydia after he left.  Did she move on, still loving God?  Was she one of the believers who perished in the persecution in the city?
  The letter Paul wrote them is the most loving and has the least criticism of any he wrote.
 

 And us? 

   Like Lydia, God made all of us with a need to know Him.
 
Psalm 42:1,2    As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.

Psalm 63:1
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

  Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation

   And He's got great, exciting plans for us.

We keep trying to fill that need with other things.  Some of us are aware that God is what we really need. When we accept that need and eagerly seek Him, He rewards us with what we are wanting --- Himself.




  Now if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although all the earth is Mine, ⁶ and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’

. . . you are his holy priests.. . . 

  Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.