Wednesday is for Prayer
“And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside,
where we supposed there was a place of prayer,
and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.”
(Acts 16:13, ESV)
There was intentionality to Paul’s visit to the riverside, “we supposed there was a place of prayer.“ Ten men was the threshold for a Jewish synagogue and apparently, there was too small a Jewish population for a synagogue presence in the city. The custom was that without such a gathering place, Jews and proselytes would gather near a river on the Sabbath for prayer. Paul knows this custom and intentionally heads to the riverside “supposing” he would find a gathering of believers in the true God.
From the description in Acts, it is likely that there were …
- only women gathered
- perhaps only a few women gathered, and
- possibly, only or mostly, Jewish proselytes gathered.
So the scene is quite possibly, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke, near a riverside in a Roman city on a Saturday (Sabbath) morning when the gospel first comes to Europe on the second missionary journey of Paul. But notice, they are there by intention. They are looking for an opportunity and they simply sat down and began to talk to the women who had gathered there.
Three dynamic simplicities:
- They were intentional.
- They were looking for an opportunity.
- They were available for the Spirit to use them.
Questions:
Where are the places of opportunity where you can be intentional and available to the Spirit of God today so that lives might be changed for eternity? What might happen in your community if you began to pray and look for these opportunities to be available to God?
“Lord, why do we need to wait until tomorrow?
Make us boldly intentional in our lives today.
For your glory and our neighbors joy, in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.”
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