The Gift of Compassion

 

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious…”

—Psalm 103:8a

One of the greatest gifts we can give others is the gift of compassion.

Compassion is neither sympathy: feeling sorry for someone—nor empathy: identifying within one’s self how another person must feel. No, on the contrary, compassion is an outpouring of love toward another person that motivates us to want to do whatever we can to make that person’s life better.

The Lord Jesus Christ looks on you and me with compassion. He loves us with unbridled love. He sees our sinfulness and still He wants to cleanse us by the shedding of His own blood.

While it is true that Jesus was obedient to His Father’s will when He allowed the Roman government to take Him to Calvary’s cruel cross, it was His compassion for us that gave Him joy in His suffering and death.

Do we emulate that kind of compassion in our own lives? Do we have such a God-breathed love when we look at others that we hasten to do whatever it takes to help them and make their lives better.

At the beginning of this new day, let us compare our attitude and our actions to the God who loves us, as recorded in Psalm 103:8-12:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As God enables us through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, this day let us look on those around us with compassion and respond in God-breathed love to their needs.

 

_{Copyright © 2014 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

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