Thursday, July 15 Read Luke 10:5-7: “Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay.” Reflect This passage is a bit of a change of pace for our devotionals. Instead of showing hospitality, this one is about receiving hospitality. One time I accidentally dropped my credit card in a Walmart parking lot. I was unaware it happened until hours later and when I went back to the store to look for it, it was nowhere to be found. A little while later, I received a phone call from a woman who said she found my card in the parking lot. She picked it up, read the name on it, and somehow tracked my phone number down so she could call me and return it. When I met her so she could return my card, I tried to give her some money as a way to say thank you. She quietly refused and said, “If I take your money, then you are robbing me of the opportunity to bless you.” I have never forgotten this exchange and I have tried since then to not rob others of their opportunity to be a blessing if that is what they are trying to do. We live in a world where we are always looking for the next bigger and better thing. And when we do that we can miss out on the blessings that have been placed right in front of us. Jesus asks us to be different from that when He says, “Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide.” We will certainly be blessed. It is our job to accept that blessing and find a joyful contentment in it, not wishing for something that we perceive to be bigger and better somewhere else. If we receive a blessing, let us receive it as if it were from the Lord and know that what He gives is sufficient. In conclusion: 1. A big part of hospitality is knowing when to accept the hospitality that is being shown to us. 2. When others show hospitality towards you, be content in that. Don’t spend your time wishing a greater act of hospitality was being shown towards you. What you are being given is a blessing and sufficient. Pray God, may we remember to listen, to smile, and to offer or receive a helping hand each time the opportunity presents itself.