4/9/10 Acts 16
A Place of Prayer
(Ac 16:13)13And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
Paul and his companions are visiting some of the towns they traveled to during their first missionary journey. Afterward they journeyed on to some new towns and then Paul received a vision at night of a Macedonian man seeking help. Understanding this to be the God directing them they left and ended up in Philippi. As was the custom when Paul and Barnabas or now Silas, Timothy, and Luke entered a city they would seek to preach to the Jewish community first. Philippi was a Roman colony and according to this passage there is no synagogue in Philippi. In order to establish a synagogue there needed to be 10 Jewish men present. This is the reason that they went to look for a place of prayer.
When they find the place of prayer they find some women who had assembled there and it was next to a river. There may have been some Jewish women present, but the next verse mentions a woman named Lydia and this is a Greek name. It is very possible that the women gathered here were all Gentiles who were “worshippers of God.” In verse 13 Paul and his companions sat down and spoke to the women and we can safely assume that they were proclaiming forgiveness of sins in Jesus, because verse 14 says the Lord opened her heart to the things Paul had spoken. The Lord is the one who produced the salvation and the success and credit of her conversion is given to the Lord as should always be the case.
What about this place of prayer? How many Sabbaths had these women gathered at the riverside? Where their prayers answered? I think that we can conclude that there sincere faith and prayers resulted in God bringing and directing some missionaries to the very place where they had sought him to proclaim the way of salvation. What about our place of prayer? Is our church viewed by ourselves and others as a place of prayer? (Mk 11:17)17And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.” I love this verse because God’s house is to be a place of prayer for all nations. All are welcome to come and seek, abide, and commune with God. But it gets better! Under the new covenant God’s house is within the heart of those who have believed (1 Cor 3:16, 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Rev 3:20). So where is the place of prayer? Hopefully, the place of prayer characterizes our church and other local churches. You should also have a special place where you go to kneel in prayer, it may be in your bedroom, a home office, in a den, next to your favorite chair, or even outside on nice days like today. But do not forget the real place of prayer is within a believer’s heart. Let me encourage you to go to that place as the scripture says “without ceasing.”
Prayer: Father, what a joy it is to come to the place of prayer to meet with You. In the place of prayer there is abundance of everything. Teach me the beauty of beholding You in prayer. Show me Yourself in Jesus name. Amen.
Open the eyes of my heart Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart,
I want to see You. I want to see You.
To see You high and lifted up,
Shining in the light of Your glory.
Pour out Your power and love,
As we (I) sing holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy holy. Holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy, holy, I want to see You.