“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 9:36 (NIV)
God is compassionate!
It is part of what makes Him glorious, for when He described Himself to Moses, he started with “the LORD, the LORD the compassionate and…”
Compassion is defined as a sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.
Pity by itself is not compassion, for compassion is always attached to action. We see this so clearly portrayed in the account of our Lord’s activities in Matthew's action-packed chapter 9. He forgives and heals the paralytic, then calls and eats with a sinner, raises a dead girl, heals a sick woman and then heals two blind men and a mute.
Our Lord Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and is full of compassion, He came down here from heaven because He is compassionate, He healed because He is compassionate, He forgives because He is compassionate and His compassion compels Him to ask the Father to send us out into the harvest field.
At the heart of true gospel ministry is compassion.
You care about the people you are ministering to, and you want to help them, you want to see them saved, live the life God has for them now and then enter eternal life.
None of us are as effective as Jonah was, we can only dream of a response like Jonah’s preaching garnered, and yet He had zero compassion, so we don’t need compassion to be effective ministers.
But we need compassion to glorify God.
And we need compassion to reveal God to those around us.
If we don’t have compassion for those we are ministering to, then why are we ministering, and is it true ministry or are we faking it?
If we don’t have compassion, then how do we get it?
The great news for each of us who are united with Christ is that the compassion of God resides in us, and as we surrender to the Spirit His compassion will fill our hearts.
Change my heart Oh God make it ever true.
Change my heart Oh God May I be like you.
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