Belonging to Jesus is to walk and love like him.
When I was just a young player, I began to train with the academy team in São Paulo, just a short drive from my home. There, I trained with other 12-13 year olds who traveled long distances from their hometowns in order to practice at a big academy and chase their football dreams.
On the weekends, I would return home, get to enjoy my mother’s cooking and the company of my family while some of the other academy players were stuck at the facility without a home to spend the weekend at, longing for their mother’s cooking.
Spurred on by compassion, my family took it upon themselves to invite all the boys who had nowhere to go on the weekends into our home. We would cook for them, bring them to a movie, and adopt them into our family until training on Monday.
With this gesture, my parents were practicing the values of God's kingdom, opening our home to share love and affection with boys who were homesick and missing their families. It was a great lesson for me, so that I too could learn to share God's mercy.
It's easy to want to belong to the popular crowd. To want to hang out with the famous. In sports, few remember those who lose. But in God's kingdom, values are different. God invites us to follow him as true worshipers, those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
They are those who recognize their insignificance before God's Sovereignty. They are those who know they need the Father's mercy and grace to rise each day.
Because of our sin and brokenness, we are all undeserving of His blessing. Mercy is an invitation to us – the undeserving. It opens the door to those who feel disqualified, rejected, or unworthy and tells them they can belong to God’s family.
Challenge
God has invited you to His table, who will you invite to yours?
What will you do to extend mercy, grace, and hospitality to someone today?
Prayer
Father, open our eyes to those around us who are in need of your mercy. Help us to be your hands and feet as we care for the defeated. Give us generous hearts and working hands so that we can extend hospitality to those who need it most. Let us not be swayed by status, but help us to live the kind of lives You have called us to, even if it makes us unpopular. Amen.
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