By Natalie Wolfe

“…‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”

—Matthew 25:44b-45

Even as someone who is involved in hospitality ministry, and someone who identifies one of my main spiritual gifts as hospitality, those are some very convicting verses.

One of the main reasons I fell in love with City Church when we first started attending almost 4 years ago is how welcome and loved we felt right from the beginning. I didn’t really see how I was special or how I would fit in here, as I was struggling to really grasp what my identity was at the time, but I was loved and welcomed anyway. I wasn’t hungry or sick or in prison or anything as heavy as the verses above describe, but I did feel like I wasn’t worthy of the care and attention given to me by people I was only just beginning to form friendships with.

Those experiences are a huge part of why I love getting to be a part of hospitality ministries today. It’s such a joyful experience to make people feel loved and welcomed, just like I felt all those years ago. Even though it’s something I love and many other people love as well, it can still be a challenge to include everyone in that hospitality. Some people are harder to love and welcome than others. The sad part is that it’s usually not their fault, but ours. We’re picky, selfish, and sometimes just plain judgemental. It’s as if we think we’re the ones responsible for deciding who is worthy of being hospitable to.

This is where prayer comes in. It’s not easy for us to go and change our hard and stony hearts all on our own. Being in the word helps, but there’s nothing quite as effective as praying for God to change your heart. Just like when we receive salvation in the first place. When we repent and believe, we don’t just promise God that we’ll change, we rely on him to do the changing. We can just as easily ask God in prayer to change our hearts, and our eyes, to look on the least of these with the same love and welcoming spirit that we are given by God himself.

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