Paul and his companions continued on their way until they reached Philippi . On the Sabbath they were looking for a place of prayer, they didn’t have the choices we have today of various places to worship. At the riverside they found a group of women in prayer and worshiping. Imagine how the women would have felt; they were meeting as usual and suddenly this preacher of the gospel joins them.
The woman, Lydia a seller of purple goods was among those who were baptised. So impressed was she by Paul’s preaching and message that she urged Paul and his companions to stay with her. We can imagine the long and helpful conversations they would have had during that period. Paul’s message would have stayed with them long afterwards.
It seems it was the custom for these women to meet by the riverside. This meant that they were in the right place when Paul arrived. If God has a message for us, we need to be in church, or somewhere similar to hear it. As a young Christian with my friends we used to ask, where will we be when the second coming happens. Of course, we can’t be in church all the time, but we wouldn’t want to be in a ‘place of ‘ill repute ‘as we called some places in those days. .I don’t think we knew what ‘ill repute’ even meant! Each day I pray that my steps may be directed by Him, We need to be in the place God’s wants us to be.