Compassion

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

God's eyes shine on us with compassion when we are hurting. We cry out to Him and He comforts us in our affliction. His wraps his loving arms around us and we can feel His presence. And from His compassion for us, we learn to be compassionate to others.

God’s comfort is like a deep breath of fresh air. We need it. We know that He feels and understands our pain and loves us. We read about His compassion in the Bible and we feel it in our daily lives. It is the most precious of all compassion.

But we also need that sensitivity and tenderness from the people around us when we are heart-sick. We need our loved ones to hold us, to look at us with love and concern. When we cry out, we need their warmth and tolerance just as we need it from the Lord.

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:14)

When Christ saw His children lost and emotionally distraught, He had compassion on them and healed them. We can just imagine the love He felt and His arms reaching out to hold them. Isn’t that what we want, not only from Him, but from our brothers and sisters?

If someone looks at us with compassion and holds us, they take part of the load onto themselves. But when, instead, they try to distract us and don’t appear to feel compassion, it can make our burden heavier and we may feel alone.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

Unfortunately, the people closest to us sometimes don’t know how to show compassion when we are wounded, afraid, or grieving. Instead they try to tell us what went wrong, why we shouldn’t have gotten emotionally involved, or make jokes to get our minds off our troubles.

Not experiencing compassion from our family and friends can make our burdens heavier. We feel isolated and lonely. We might stop having compassion for ourselves and bottle up our feelings. Pain and hurt that people think we brought on ourselves and the emotions we try to hide can become unbearable burdens.

Christ has compassion on us all the time. We need to have compassion for each other and ourselves whether we understand the pain being suffered or not, whether we understand how someone got involved in a situation or not, and whether we understand why they care so much. It doesn't matter to Jesus and it shouldn’t matter to us.

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. (1 Peter 3:8)

Sympathy and compassion are sometimes difficult to feel and even more difficult to show. Empathy is easier when we’ve experienced similar pain but having and showing compassion is vitally important in today’s world as we, Christians, deal with hard-hearted people. We must practice, and we must show Christ’s compassion to everyone.

We must support each other, love each other, pray for each other, and lift everyone’s hurts to the Lord who heals. We must investigate our hearts and see if we are truly compassionate and would go out of our way to comfort someone even when we don’t understand their pain.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)

Prayer: Lord give us compassion for everyone who is hurting. We want to have soft hearts, not callused ones. Bad things have happened in our lives, but You have always been there so please don’t let us become hard-hearted and unkind to those who are suffering. If we can’t sympathize, let us pray. If we can’t say kind words, don’t let us say anything but just hold the person while they cry. Let us be like You Lord, seeing with compassion and bearing other’s burdens with Your strength as it is in heaven. Thank You for Your compassion and love to us.  Amen.