“The Blessedness Of Hospitality!”

“The Blessedness Of Hospitality!”(I Kgs 17:7-16).
Elijah was a great prophet of the LORD but he was often too full of himself. He told king Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word”(I Kgs 17:1). At another time when he was running away from the wrath of Jezebel he considered that he was “the only one left” who remained faithful to the LORD, but the LORD told him, “Yet I recerve seven thousand in Israel – all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him”(I Kgs.19:14&18).
Elijah himself was not exempted from the sufferingof famine brought about by the drought which he pronounced upon Israel. The brook which provided him with water at his hideout soon dried out.
The LORD sent him to a widow of Zarephath who was getting ready to prepare the last bit of meal for herself and her son. She however succumbed to Elijah’s plea that she should serve him first.
Her hospitality paid off as after that incident her jar of flour and the jug of oil became “sea never dry!”
We know what the widow did not know at the time: It was the LORD who asked Elijah to come live with her and he the LORD had commanded her to supply Elijah with food.
When God commands us, we open our doors to those who eventually become the source of our blessings.
Dear friend, this is a universal but particularized message. Jesus pointed out this particularity when he said, “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon…”(Lk.4:25-26). This widow was a non-Israelite, but she is the one whom the LORD chose to bless with an endless supply of daily sustenance in a period of famine.
God can choose anybody and he can use anybody. Walk with the LORD and show hospitality to everybody so that you can be that somebody among the anybody that God selects for his purpose. Do not wait until your cup overflows before you open your hand to share with others. If you share that last morsel which you cherish, it may be the means of your blessing in your own drought and famine situation.
Prayer: Holy Spirit open my heart so that I can open my door to share the bit that I have with the stranger at my gate. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.