We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

Our theme of compassion continues, albeit with a bit of a lapse. But that’s okay because it’s a lesson itself that we can take days off simply to make room for us to have compassion on ourselves—because if God Himself gives us that kind of love—room then certainly we can go ahead and give it to ourselves.

In today’s lesson, our friend James is reminding a bunch of friends from the past who are going through a tough time that when we continue on in patience, with strength in our hearts, knowing that we can get through the tough stuff in life; that when we can take our eyes off of ourselves and look at others without complaining, we’re gonna make it. In fact, James here is that annoyingly always hopeful friend that’s always reminding us…psst it ain’t so tough, remember others have gone through worse. 😅

God bless, love you, friends!

When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and said to her, “do not go on weeping. “

In today’s understanding of the word compassion, we get to experience it through the heart of Jesus and what he felt when he came across someone in deep sorrow and pain. Jesus didn’t always just perform miracles, simply for the sake of astounding everyone.

He felt something that led to the miracle. In this case, he felt a sense of affection for a suffering person all the way to the pit of His gut so much so that he brought the dead back to life.

This is the God that came to us in the form of a body of a man named Jesus. And he still feels the same when he sees our tears and pain and sorrow, he is still moved to the point that he would give his life so that you might have life eternal. He did this so that we would not have to stay in our sorrow, or stay in our grief. Receive today this new life, receive the compassion of Jesus.

You, Lord, will not withhold

Your compassion from me;

Your mercy and your truth

will continually watch over

me.

In Hebrew, the word for compassion is: raham. 30 times it’s used for the word Mercy but four times like in this psalm it’s used for the word compassion and then another four times it’s used in the Bible for the word “womb.”

What’s the difference between mercy and compassion? Compassion is that kind of Mercy that actually moves you to action. It requires that we make a choice beyond ourselves when we see someone else suffering, and decide to join them in that suffering. It’s what Christ did for us on the cross and yet we sometimes don’t even have that same kindness for our own hearts, let alone that kindness when we see someone else suffering.

In this case, the psalmist is referring to his own wretchedness ; The things that have kept him, and should keep him, far away from God. But he recognizes how sweet and loving and caring God is — he knows God has compassion for him and he stands confident in that. May you too be confident that the Lord has compassion over you and so we should have that same compassion over others, today.