Acts 14:8-18

As I have been thinking about the book of Acts, the progress of the Great Commission, and the preaching of the gospel, I have noticed an interesting idea.  The idea appears in our text this week that begins with Barnabas and Paul preaching in Lystra.  Paul sees a lame man; knows that the man has faith to be healed.  Paul heals him.  Then a very lavish and comic chain of events begins to happen.
The fact that the faith was already there before Barnabas and Paul began to preach.  The Lord Jesus was already there before the apostles even came to the city.  The announcements at the resurrection are that Jesus is going before the disciples to Galilee.  The promise of the Great Commission is “I am with you always.”  God is not just with us, God is leading us, the Holy Spirit is preparing hearts and situations for us to minister.  And the success of our efforts is dependent on what God has already done.
This brings encouragement to me.  God is already in the world, God is already bringing faith to those that we are going to encounter, and that God is in places that we may never be able to reach.  This is not to encourage laziness in us because it is all up to God.  It is to comfort us as we work because we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.