“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. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.” – Acts 16:13-15 (Emphasis added.)

The highlighted portion of the above passage of scripture seems to contain two critical elements to the conversion of Lydia. While we are told she was a worshipper of God, something else happened before she ‘heard’ internally what Paul was saying that day down by the river. The Lord opened her heart to hear what was said by Paul. What happened to Lydia was not something strictly of human intellect, although we can be certain that she had to mentally process the information. Her heart was opened by the Lord in ‘secret’ so that she could ‘hear’ with her heart, not just her ears.

The second element in this picture was ‘what Paul said’. We don’t know exactly what he said, but it is certainly safe to assume that it was the pure gospel message Paul was known to preach, that Christ died for our sins – Christ and Him crucified.

The next thing we are told is that Lydia was baptized along with her whole household, so it goes without saying that Lydia received the gospel message and trusted in Christ as her Savior and Lord.

One might even assume that there are indeed two essential elements in a person’s being saved – a heart opened by God and the preaching of the gospel message.

At this point I could offer other ‘gospel encounters’, as well as other scripture that points to these same two elements in the salvation of men, perhaps not in language quite as clear, but present nonetheless. However, I leave further reading of scripture on the matter to you, the reader, because I am certain that such reading and study on your own will reveal whether the question posed above is answered within its pages.