Open Your Door, Open Your Heart

Acts 2:46
They ate together in their homes, happy to share with joyful hearts.

1 Peter 4:9-10
Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

My Prayer: Heavenly Father, you have given me so much. Every breath I take is a gift from your heart. Even so, I confess that sometimes my own hand remains tightly closed when I encounter the needs of others. Please open both my hands and my heart that I might learn to delight in taking advantage of the daily opportunities for hospitality that you present to me. Help me remember Lord, that when I show your love in tangible ways to “the least of these”, I am ministering directly to you. As you help me open my heart and hand, O Lord, I ask that you also prompt me to open my door to those who need a taste of your love and bounty. I Jesus name, I pray this day, Amen.

Open Your Door, Open Your Heart

Hospitality opens the door to uncommon community. It is no accident that hospitality and hospital come from the same word. They both lead to the same result; healing. When you open your door to someone, you are sending this message: “You matter to me and to God”. We may think we are saying, “Come over for a visit.” What our guests hear is, “I’m worth the effort.”

So many people need this message. There are plenty of singles who eat alone, young couples who are far from home, co-workers who have been transferred, teen who feel left out, seniors who no longer drive, etc. Some people pass an entire day with no meaningful contact with anyone else. Our hospitality can be their hospital. All we need is a few basic practices.

1. Issue a genuine invitation.
2. Let them know you are interested in them.
3. Address their needs.
4. Send them out with a blessing.

Martha Stewart’s voice, the voice that says everything needs to be perfect. The house must be perfect. The china must be perfect. Meal, kids, husband, everything must be perfect. Scented guest towels, warm appetizers, and after dinner mints.

If we wait until everything is perfect, we will never issue an invitation. What is common to us is a banquet to someone else. In our mind our house may be small, but to a lonely heart it is a castle. We might think our living room is a mess but to the person whose life is a mess, our house is a sanctuary. We may think our meal is simple but to those who eat lonely every night, pork and beans on paper plates tastes like filet mignon. What is small to us is huge to them.

We as Christians need to open our hearts, our table and our circle as well. We need to be certain to invite, not just the affluent and successful, “but when we give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, those who are hurting and we will be blessed. “ (Luke 14:13-14)

The Greek word for hospitality compounds two terms: love and stranger. The word literally means to love a stranger. All of us can welcome a guest we know, but can we open our hearts to welcome a stranger, someone who is lonely, someone who is hurting, or someone in need?