Your Favourite Dinner Guest
The seat you find yourself in will be your destiny for the next couple of hours.
Reference: Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism” (Acts 10:34 NIV)
Explore: It’s always a gamble, when you go out for dinner with a large group of people, as to where to sit. The seat you find yourself in will be your destiny for the next couple of hours.
Once I went to dinner with my husband’s work colleagues and ended up sitting next to the most interesting person where we compared stories all evening. Another dinner experience was at a friend’s birthday where I was stuck next to someone whom I assumed was mute until half way through the meal when they asked me to pass the salt!
While a dinner may not be a never-ending torture, it is a social occasion that you hope to be enjoyable. When I arrive at an event after other people I always try to place myself next to people I find interesting and sociable.
Application: When it comes to personal enjoyment I can get very selfish. I rate people on whether I would like to spend the whole evening with them or not.
Thankfully, God does not rate us in the same way. While I may have a preferred person I’d like to sit next to, God does not play favourites.
He doesn’t move away from us because our conversation is boring, or our breath smells, or we don’t feel like talking. God is there for people of all nations at all times… and He encourages us to do the same (just like He did with Peter).
Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I look down on others because they are not the same as me. Help me to be teachable like Peter and loving to all, like You. Amen.
In what ways do you play favourites against others?
This article was written by Linda Bailey
Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible. Follow her on Google Plus +Linda Bailey or Facebook by clicking the like button on the right of this page.