Irrational Compassion

Luke 10:³⁴ “…Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. ³⁵The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’”

To be able to show compassion, you have to see people how God sees them. God does so much for us but do we always do the right thing at the right time?

Not really but He does not withdraw His compassion from us. Lam.3:²² (NRSV) “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” So you and I must be like our Heavenly Father and just keep showing them compassion.

However, I am not advocating that you turn a blind eye to wrong-doing. All I am saying is do not let what people do or do not do affect your capacity for compassion. If you are aware of someone is taking advantage of your compassion, you have the wisdom of God; call him or her and confront it. The person needs to know that you are aware of what is going on. Your resources are God’s blessing on you to bless others. You cannot afford to be frivolous with your resources. Let the person know that if he or she continues to abuse the compassion, then you would be unable to continue investing your resources on him or her.

He or she needs to know that while your heart is willing to continue to lavish compassion on them, you are not going to waste the resources that God has given you. And if there is somebody else that is going to handle the resources in a responsible manner, then perhaps you want to consider channelling it to that person. Calling the person to order means you actually see them how God sees them because when we do things that upset our Father, He rebukes us, He chastises us because He is a good Father.

For some people, it may not be wise to trust the resources directly into their hands because they may not have developed enough to manage the resources properly. And that was what the Samaritan did. He paid for the care given directly to the innkeeper instead of giving the money to the wounded man. Who the man was did not stop him from having compassion and from helping the person.

Prayer: Father, I declare that I will love the Lord with all my heart, my soul and my strength and I will love my neighbour as myself, in Jesus Name. Amen!