Good Morning Hospitable Servants of the Lord! Thanks for being such loving hosts! I was unable to get around to greet you. But I heard all about our guests and how they sensed such welcoming love from us! Welcoming and loving really does describe what people experience when they enter our doors. They feel peace. joy and love and experience hope and help in action. This happens Wednesdays too! Keep it up! Living and loving like Jesus is coming alive! We are God's creations. made new in Christ to do what he planned for us and has gathered us to do. Amen! Check out the Upper Room and Connection blogs below and keep working at loving like Jesus as you are. Then allow Him to grow you to live and love more like Him. He is with you and for you and His grace is sufficient. Cast all anxiety unto Him and know His peace as He leads you to His best. I am praying for you and us to grow in and as Love. Amen! We are Love in the flesh and He is loving through us! How cool!
UR: Hospitality and Grace
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. - Hebrews 13:2 (NIV)
When I was a child, a family trip to my godparents’ house for the weekend was always a treat. My family lived in a crowded suburb, so the retreat to their very small town was an opportunity to explore freely and greet everyone openly.
The house itself was 100 years old, and the rooms seemed huge compared to our two-bedroom, post-war bungalow. The kitchen featured a large wooden table that managed to accommodate anyone who stopped by. Neighbors felt comfortable letting themselves in — sometimes cutting through the house instead of walking around the block — knowing the doors were never locked and coffee was always on. It was a home built upon hospitality and the grace of God.
Like our own homes, our houses of worship come in many styles and sizes — from grand cathedrals to one-room chapels. They are all created as a gathering place for those who love God, where we can enjoy the fellowship of the faithful, praise God, and gain strength and solace in times of trial. Jesus asked us to serve everyone with generous love, hope, forgiveness, and grace as members of the family of God. When we do, our own faith is recharged, preparing us for sharing God’s love when we leave.
's devotional is available to you for free because of the generosity of our donors.
Thanks to donor support, anyone can read 's meditation without logging in for up to 7 days.
Please consider supporting our ministry. Your donation or paid subscription helps ensure that readers around the world continue to receive spiritual encouragement every day.
's Prayer
Dear Lord, may we be filled with your presence every time we enter your house. Help us offer acceptance, hospitality, and peace to all those who enter. Amen.
Connection Blog:
-
Love Your Enemies and Pray for Them
You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:43–45)
In his commentary on this passage in Matthew, Adam Clarke says the principle in the three verses above is the “most sublime piece of morality ever given to man. . . . Who can obey it?” he asks. “None but he who has the mind of Christ. . . . Nothing but supreme eternal love can enable man to practice a precept so unsupportable to corrupt nature.” The way to treat an enemy is to love him, even when he or she is unkind in word or deed. Extending this even further, Jesus not only commands us to love our enemies, but to pray for them!
Prayer is God’s love in action. Once we begin to care for the person for whom we are praying, we can extend acts of love and kindness to that person as opposed to avoiding them or treating them as they have treated us or others. As we show our love and care to them, their hearts may be transformed in such a dramatic way that everything about their lives changes. They may even become ready to hear the gospel if they have previously rejected it or have never considered the good news of Jesus. But, it all begins with prayer. When someone angers or frustrates you, begin to pray for them. Teach this to your children and grandchildren as well.
This command of Jesus has a promise attached. By behaving in a loving manner toward someone who has mistreated you, and by praying for the person, you will be considered a true child of your Father who is in heaven, for He is this way. “He causes his to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?” (Matthew 5:45–46).
I don’t know a better way to stop a fight than to stop fighting and start giving and loving. How many marriages would be saved if the partners could just crucify self and do what Jesus commands?
While visiting the Holy Land some years ago, I was struck by the strong emphasis on peacemaking in the Bethlehem Bible College. This school is led by one of the strongest Palestinian church leaders in the area. I recently learned the reason for his strong stand for peace in the midst of great conflict. In 1948, his father was killed by an Israeli sniper right in front of his home in East Jerusalem. His mother, left alone to raise seven children, urged them not to seek revenge but to obey Jesus’ command to love their enemies. This has been lived out by this family to this day. The college leader’s son, Sami Awad, is now the director of Holy Land Trust, a ministry that teaches nonviolence. His nephew, also named Sami Awad, spent a week in the museums of the Holocaust in Dachau, trying to understand what the Jews went through. Because of their obedience to the commands of Jesus, these two young men are highly respected by leaders on both sides of the Middle East conflict.
If you love those who love you, what reward have you? But when you love your enemies, and do good to them “your reward will be great” (Luke 6:35).
Lord, it’s true. This command is contrary to my natural human nature. Please so fill me with the divine nature that I can truly treat my enemies with the kind of love that gives. I ask You according to Your Word to pour Your love into my life. Show me those who might think of themselves as my enemy and show me how to love them with Your love.
Thank God that in all things he works for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28).
Confess any fear, worry, or anxiety you may be feeling about your present circumstances.
Commit your day to God and rest in his good planning for your life (Prov. 3:5-6).
Ask for his peace to remain with you throughout your day.
Pray that believers everywhere will walk in truth and unity. Ask the Holy Spirit to draw them closer to each other.
Prayer Pointer
“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” —Abraham Lincoln
Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayerleader.com. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
