Don't Lose Your Compassion

With the bombardment of heartbreaking news and the amount of scamming that we hear about almost on a daily basis through the different media outlets, it can be easy to become callous and weary towards the shock and disbelief that usually comes with it.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who choose to live their lives preying on the compassion of other people. It's also unfortunate to hear about so much death and destruction occurring in the world today. No matter how those deaths occur, it's always tragic and real lives are impacted and left to pick up the pieces. One thing as Christ followers that we must remember is Jesus, Himself, was full of compassion and mercy (James 5:11). It's important for us to assess ourselves and our love walk as we go about our day to day.

One thing Satan wants to do is encourage us to operate in fear and try to protect our own hearts from getting taken advantage of by others. We've become more and more skeptical of people and their motives instead of leaning into the Holy Spirit's leading. We've become our own protectors and the doors of our hearts are closing. As the scripture says in Matthew 24:12, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." This is what the enemy wants! He wants to paralyze our ability to be compassionate and benevolent towards each other. He wants our hearts to grow cold and become self serving. We're so busy being in protective mode that we almost completely alleviate our chances of hearing what the Spirit would have us to do because we've made our minds up to avoid being taken for granted.

Now, this is not to say that we should do away with using common sense. Even Jesus knew when to leave the room when danger was imminent! Certainly don't play into a scam when you sense there's something fishy going on. We should utilize all of our senses to do our best to maintain safety and normalcy for ourselves and our families. I'm just saying that the spirit of fear is not the place we want to operate and make decisions from. Fear is hindering a lot of people and causing them to second guess the activation of compassion towards others. And when we shut off compassion, we become more and more self serving. Every day we should be asking the Lord to show us how to serve someone else and how to be a blessing to someone else. We don't know how even just our hello and a smile could change the course of someone's day.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord, help us not to move through this world in fear. You are the author and the finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Help us to trust that you will protect us from all evil and you will protect our souls (Psalm 121:7). Fear propels us to guard our own hearts. Trusting you propels us to love freely and allow you to be the guardian of our hearts. We want your compassion and love to flow through us unhindered and unashamed.