Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend and have time to relax. We are leaving this morning for the lake, and it seems to be a cooler day. We look forward to seeing family and to swim and sauna and also to hear Leif preach tomorrow morning.
Devotions for today
Doesn’t it make you feel well loved when you are offered hospitality without any thought of being a burden? It’s like being received in a welcoming way that says, “All that I have is yours!”
I am reading Juliet Canha’s book, “Life Lessons in Transformation and Rest,” and she has a chapter on hospitality that caused me to see more how self-giving hospitality is like a beautiful extension of God’s grace. She reminds us of the wonderful example of God’s gracious hospitality in the story of the Prodigal son and the Father’s warm reception of him. The Father welcomed home his son who had squandered all his inheritance and yet He poured out His unconditional love and acceptance. We are called to be like that with a welcoming heart to others and as it says in Philippians 2 to have tenderness and compassion and in humility to consider others better than ourselves.
That means we aren’t looking to serve others who can pay us back, but to see them as the Lord sees them with acceptance and unconditional love; that is to honor them above ourselves, not to judge them but to serve them, to show kindness, and to offer hospitality. That takes humility and as it says I I Peter 5:5, “Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another. “
How open are our hearts to receive others like that? If we were like the father in the story of the Prodigal, would we welcome our wayward son with open arms, no explanations needed if he was sorry or not? Or would we be like the elder son that closed his heart towards his brother in judgment.?It doesn’t take a mind reader to know when someone has closed their heart to us and that is painful.
The Lord is calling all of us to open our hearts wide to Him first of all, and then to open them up to others with hospitality that says, “All that I have is yours!”
Challenge for today: Confess any selfishness to the Lord and ask Him to help you express grace-filled hospitality to others.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy
Leave a Reply