Compassion For Your Hurt

Compassion----when I speak the word, what do you think of? What do you see? I think of someone who is loving and kind, someone who cares about others, someone who sees other people’s hurts and wants to fix them.

I looked in the dictionary and the word means about what I just said above. Part of the definition is the word pity. I consider the word pity to be a weak word, denoting an emotion without any action, an emotion that interferes with the word of God and its results. To me, compassion is a strong word, bringing forth an image of doing something about what we see around us.

Pity comes from man. Compassion comes from God. Jesus was moved with compassion toward those around him when He was here on this earth. The compassion of God moves us to pray for the sick and see results because it is God’s compassion, not ours. It is His moving on us to extend His Word of healing to those who are hurting, whether in their bodies or in their souls.

Sometimes the greatest hurt is in the soul of man. Like a festering sore, it can bring much infection to that person, infection of rejection, self-pity, resentment, bitterness, etc. We must allow the Holy Spirit of God to come with His healing balm of Gilead and heal the hurt and heal the pain. Pain in the soul can be just as debilitating as pain in the body. The emotions of our soul, if allowed to run rampant without God’s control, can bring much damage to us and cripple our walk with God.

I believe I am talking to some people this morning. You have been hurt deeply by others and it has been such a wound that you feel like the very life has been draining out of you because it was someone very close to you who wounded you. You feel betrayed and alone. You wonder how God could allow such a thing to happen to you. And these are people who you thought cared for you. It could be family. It could be your best friend. It could be someone in the church. Whoever it was, in your pain, stand up, take a deep breath and let it go. It’s not worth the pain it is causing you. In the midst of your agony, forgive them. The act of forgiveness releases God’s love into the situation and allows Him to heal you.

We are told that in the last days offenses will come. Did you know that one of the biggest cause for offense is hurt? Yes, hurt is offense. Even if what they did to you is wrong, let it go. We are living in the days when the harvest is ready for reaping. Offenses will prevent us from walking in the anointing and leading others to Christ. The Father wants His household full of children. And we are the ones who will bring them in. Hurting people cannot bring healing to other hurting people because they are too full of their hurts instead of God’s love.

How can I talk about this? I have been there and done that more than once in my life. There have been times that in the middle of my pain, I have cried out to God: God, forgive them for they know not what they do. And God in His mercy reached down (and He will do the same for you) and began a healing process in me that washed away the hurt and soothed the pain. What the Father wants are children who are whole in their spirits, whole in their souls, and whole in their bodies.

We talk a lot about physical healing and that was the direction I was going in this morning where the compassion of God is concerned, but the Holy Spirit has taken me in a different direction. We focus much on physical healing. And there are times when the physical healing comes as we receive healing in our souls. Lack of ease, unease, hurt, worry, concern can cause challenges in our physical bodies. There are times when these physical challenges are directly attributed to unforgiveness and strife and contention. The Bible tells us that where there is strife, there is every evil work.

So, today let the Holy Spirit do a work in your soul---healing emotional hurts, dispensing the medicine of the Word of healing, transforming your intellectual ideas to His ways and conforming your will to His will. In 3 John 2 we read: Beloved, I pray above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.