Grace and Compassion

Psalm 145:8-9

The Lord is gracious and compassionate; slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

Grace and compassion....two of the things we are REQUIRED when we are followers of Christ and yet sometimes the most difficult.

How do we practice this when we don't want to or we think the person or people are undeserving?

• What about the one who...

• ...raped us?
• ...tortured us?
• ...robbed us?
• ...took advantage of us?
• ...used us?
• ...abused us?

• What if they are...

• ...another race?
• ...a convicted felon?
• ...gay?
• ...a murderer?
• ...a rapist?
• ...__________(fill in the blank)?

Do we show His grace to them? What happens when we don't? What about when we can't, because of where we have been or where we are in life? How do we overcome this travesty to ourselves?

Yes, NOT showing grace and compassion is a travesty. NOT only to the person who NEEDS the grace and compassion, even MORE to the person who needs to be gracious and compassionate. I have found that giving grace and compassion to the person or people I DON'T want to give it to is when I experience the greatest blessing and (most times) lesson from God.

Being gracious and compassionate comes second nature to some, yet I must admit there are times when I have REFUSED to give it and have suffered because I didn't. Today is a different time and place in life than ever. Closeness to God and seeking Him is of the utmost importance (on most days) and consistently learning how fallible, broken and human we all are (especially me) is humbling.

Truly learning to love others as Christ loves us is not always easy....I balk, I run, I trip, I stumble, I fall, I refuse, I rebel, I...especially when I am putting feelings, emotions, brokenness and other things before Christ, sometimes without even knowing I am doing it.

So the "I" is temporarily removed (yes, it does come back) and seeking Him to find what would He do becomes more important. It is not always a journey that is liked, nor is it always completed. Yet, when Christ is sought first being gracious is easier, less painful, and not so much of a battle.

Today the goal is to be gracious, compassionate, loving, caring, and forgiving. Is this going to be easy? No. Can it be done? Yes. And this is why:


~~I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13


Amen.