Acts 16: A Story of Listening to the Lord

In chapter sixteen, we come upon Paul on his second missionary journey. He has been preaching the gospel and comes upon what might be considered a rough patch. As Paul and his companions continue their journey to find more people to teach, they come upon one decision after another that they are told by the holy ghost is not the right way to go. First, they try to go towards Asia (not modern day Asia, but more in the area of Turkey) and then they decide to go towards Bythinia, but they are told no. This is a situation that I would find frustrating. They likely put thought into where they should go and came to a decision, but when they asked for the Lord's guidance, they got no for an answer. However, they were patient and listened to the Lord and did not go to these locations. They start trekking the direction that has not been forbidden to them by the Spirit, and then Paul is given a vision in which he is told to go to Macedonia. They then (in verse 10) immediately acted on God's word to them and started heading towards Macedonia. I think that this is a great example of what each of us can do in our lives. When we keep on trying to come up with different paths to go down in our lives, we need to follow these missionaries' examples and be patient and continue to listen to the Lord. And when we are told that a direction is right, we need to immediately act on that direction before that revelation begins to fade and we begin to question it.


This being said, acting on what we are told when we listen to God will not necessarily be easy. It wasn't easy for Paul and his companions. They completed their journey to Phillipi, the main city in Macedonia, and they did not immediately have success. They had to wait days for anything to happen with their preaching of the gospel. Would this have been tough? Yes. Would it have caused Paul or any of his companions to doubt the revelation that they had had from God? It probably would have caused me to rethink it some. However, these missionaries still remained faithful to the revelation they had received and, because they did, the gospel was able to go into what is now Europe. I think that the moral of this story is that if you listen to the Lord and have faith in what he tells you to do, no matter how hard it can be at times, good will always come out of it. And you'll get to grow closer to God and become a better listener in the process!