Read Acts 16:11-15 in your personal Bible or at the link provided.
Review
1. How many places did Paul and Silas travel to before they got to Philippi?
2. What were the women gathered to do by the riverbank?
3. After being baptized, what did Lydia urge Paul and Silas to do?
Reflect
Paul and Silas’s travels took them across land and sea, until they ended up by a riverbank. A woman named Lydia responded to Jesus in faith. Her first response afterward was to open up her home to two men who were likely travel-weary after their journey. She not only invited them, she practically begged them to come.
The Greek word for hospitality means “love the stranger.” That’s what Lydia did, and that’s what we’re called to do as well. Because God has opened up His heart to us, we respond by opening up our homes to others. Not just family and close friends, but neighbors and maybe even people we’ve just met. They don’t have to look like us, act like us, or vote like us to be invited in, to be seen, heard, and loved.
How can you create a space that allows you to love others well, to invite them to a better way? Is there someone God is inviting you to see, hear, and love? Is there anything you need to change so strangers are loved in your home?
Respond
Pray through today’s reading, reflecting on the questions just posed. What do you think God is prompting you to do in response? Write it down, share it with a friend, and take a step to start making it happen.