Click on the Player below to Listen to the Audio Recording of Today's Devotion...

Played: 90 | Download | Duration: 00:02:57

Are You Being Hospitable?

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1 Peter 4:9

A family who had guests over for dinner one evening asked their five-year-old to say grace. Puzzled, the child asked, ‘What should I say’? Her mother replied, ‘Just say what I always say’. So, bowing her head the little girl prayed, ‘Dear God, why did I invite these people to dinner anyway’? Let’s be honest: hospitality’s hard work! It involves sacrifice! Nevertheless, you’re to ‘‘do it ungrudgingly - cordially and graciously without complaining [‘as representing Him].’ Representing who? God! That changes things, doesn’t it? Paul writes: ‘Make a habit’ of ’hospitality’ (Romans 12:13). Peter writes: ‘Be hospitable, with brotherly affection for unknown guests, foreigners, the poor and all others’. (1 Peter 4:9). Had any unknown guests, foreigners, or poor folk over to dinner lately? A man conducting a church survey wrote to advice columnist, Dear Abby, saying, ‘Of the 195 churches I visited, I was spoken to in only one by someone other than an ‘official greeter’ - and that was to ask me to move my feet!’ It’s easy to extend hospitality to people you know, but Jesus said, ‘If all you do is love the loveable, Anybody can do that’ (Matthew 5:46). So, how about those you don’t know? Those who don’t fit your social circle? Sure, you can find excuses; you’re too busy, you don’t want to get involved, you’re uncomfortable with strangers. But God says you represent Him; that means: (a) sacrificing your personal agenda (b) giving of your time and money (c) going out on a limb for people you don’t know - or even like (d) seeing others through God’s eyes. So, are you hospitable?