Friends' Favorites - Open House

Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16 The Message

Hebrews 4:12 tells us, For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. And as I read again the verse in Matthew 5, I am cut with these words - Be generous with your lives... 

I know after working all week long and keeping up with all the other commitments, it's hard to find time to be generous with our lives!! And yet, we are called to do just that. 

I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions and be truthful with the answers. 

You know, we work and we have family and church commitments, and extra-curricular schedules (lessons, sports practices, etc) - we are so busy!! I know some of the people I care about have schedules that are so over-committed that it's exhausting just hearing about them. They're not bad things; there are just too many of them.

Are we over-committed? Are those over-commitments now resulting in less sleep because we lie awake thinking about what we couldn't get done today, and so we'll get up earlier tomorrow to try to get them done? Is it a control thing - we don't want to ask for help? How much stress are we adding to our loved ones when we're in "Hurry up, we have to get to (wherever it is we must be)" mode? Have we taken time to pray about what we should perhaps let go of? Wait - do we even have time to pray about that?

God is interested in relationships. His Word says they'll know we are Christians by our love. We can't show them His love if we're rushing past them to get to the next thing. Today's promise tells it like it is - By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

How do we do that? Keep open house; be generous with your lives...

Prayer:

Father,
           Forgive us for being caught up in the cares of this world. Show us how to prioritize what's important and modify our schedules accordingly. Give us the wisdom and the grace to know when and how to say no to those things that stop us from being generous with our lives. We want to live in such a way that others will open up with You. Help us, O God! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.