compassion

[Tim Kristianto]

Hey all,

I was just reading Mark 8, and I noticed that in verse 2, it says Jesus had compassion. The context is Jesus feeding the 4000 with 7 loaves and a few fish, and the miracle was having 7 baskets leftover.

I was really taken back by the verse about compassion. I then decided to look at a few other instances in the gospels where Jesus performed miracles. Lazarus raised from the dead, feeding of the 5000, when Jesus asked God to forgive "them" for they know not what they do..

There are other times when it does not say that Jesus had compassion, or sorrow, or grievance in His heart, but it is plainly seen in the text. For example, the centurion's faith greatly moved Jesus, and the Syro-Phonecian's faith also greatly moved Jesus. 

It made me think.. sometimes we try to do miracles to prove God's existence, or to prove to ourselves that God can use us. Most of the time, we fail. Maybe our mind set isn't right. Maybe we are missing a link. It certainly happens to me. I pray for someone to be healed, but most of the time I do it so that I hope that the person I pray for would be healed, so that God's miracle would happen. But sometimes I forget about the importance of compassion. Maybe before we all pray for a miracle, we should be compassionate first. I remember once praying for someone who was hard of hearing. I prayed because I wanted to see him healed, but I didn't pray because I felt so sad for him, because he was hard of hearing. 

So, in a nutshell, let's have compassion when we pray over people. Let's not focus on the miracle, but let's focus on the person that needs prayer. I believe God will use us even more when we do that!

Cheers!

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Tim Kristianto

Mobile: 0401 135 101

Email: timbo...@gmail.com