Showing Hospitality
29/02/2020 18:00
I’d been dreaming … and a happy dream it was! My beloved and I were apparently on vacation. As part of our holiday, we'd spent one night in my friend Pen’s beautiful home. I couldn’t remember the details of my dream when I awoke, but I did recall the emotions it had evoked. Friendship. Love. Warmth. Joy. Blessing. It caused me to reflect. Perhaps, just perhaps, my dream was a reminder of a glorious truth—one I had never considered before?
Pen (aka Penelope, aka Penny) and I have been friends for over 7 years. At our first Writer’s Conference on the Sunshine coast in Oct 2012, the cabin I occupied was next to hers, so we’d caught a glimpse of each other during our time there although we had no contact. When we said our goodbyes however we discovered that God had already linked us in spirit.
One year later, at our next Writer’s Conference, we met again. This time, we made sure we connected. We shared a cuppa at tea time and we discussed our writerly challenges. Most importantly, we spent a precious time in prayer, talking to God together about our needs—and our friendship was cemented. Pen lives far away in New South Wales but distance is no barrier between Christian writers. A flurry of emails have been hurled through cyberspace over the years as we shared our lives, our hopes, our dreams. We’ve become prayer partners.
My recent dream reminded me that although I have yet to take up Pen’s generous invitation to visit, I believe I have already enjoyed her hospitality. Just as a gardener’s hard work produces blossoms that sprinkle joy on their beholders, prayer for others in the secret place brings similar returns and rich dividends to those we pray for.
Pen extends to me her kindness in the spacious rooms of her heart where I am welcomed and loved, where I am prayed for and blessed. I rest within her heart, sipping a cup of Earle Grey tea (which she assures me is worth drinking) and am introduced to her Chief Guest – none other than Jesus. She tells Him of my needs. Jesus turns and looks at me. He smiles in agreement and nods. “It shall be done!” He says. I am restored through my friend's loving prayers.
So here’s something that might encourage you. You may not always have the means and the time to offer hospitality to family and friends as much as you would like. But prayer? Now, that is another matter. You can host your family and friends within the unique rooms of your heart. You can shower them with your loving hospitality in God’s presence. You can invite your family and friends daily into the living room of your being where with God’s help you will enrich their lives and bring healing, help, comfort, strength, blessing and hope simply by talking to Jesus on their behalf. Isn’t that an inestimable privilege?
So … let me begin!
Who needs my hospitality today?
Who could be invited inside my heart to be loved, nurtured and blessed?
"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,
just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thess 5:11
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Eph 6:18
