Walk a Mile in Their Shoes… it was a statement my Mother often said to me when I judged too harshly or was unable to forgive someone who I thought had wronged me. It was said for one reason, to help me think about the circumstances of the other persons life, to help move me from a place of hardheartedness to a place of mercy, empathy and hopefully on to a place of forgiveness and compassion.
In Christianity and in reading the Bible we often see or use words like, mercy, empathy, compassion but what do the really mean and how does it apply to me and my life?
Is it important and if it is what should I do to cultivate these traits in my own life and in the lives of those I influence.
Mercy, empathy and compassion when i see it work…seems so powerful. it is these traits that seem to helps us in the process of forgiveness.
it is compassion that moves us to help someone though our words, or in giving or in helping someone out, but what does compassion and empathy really mean.
The Latin root for the word compassion is pati, which means to suffer, and the prefix com- means with. Compassion, originating from compati, literally means to suffer with. The connection of suffering with another person brings compassion beyond sympathy into the realm of empathy.
However, compassion is much more than empathy.
Empathy is an ability to relate to another person’s pain as if it’s your own. Empathy, like sympathy, is grounded in emotion and feeling, but empathy doesn’t have an active component to it.
Mercy also plays such a huge role in understanding and coming to that place of empathy and compassion.
Mercy fuels compassion, providing promising glints of light in a darkened world. It’s kindness, forward forgiveness, and empathy. Mercy chooses not to be offended, and compassionately sees a hurting heart behind hurtful words. God’s mercy is reflected in the cross of Christ, a direct reflection of His love for us. Mercy is an extension of and expression of love, “an act of kindness, compassion, or favor.” Mercy is a characteristic of the One True God.
Human emotions like mercy, empathy and compassion can go a long way in helping us develop an attitude of loving kindness towards ourselves, our family, our church family, our neighbours and humanity in general, but human emotion can only take us so far.
There are times when due to an offence, a perceived wrong, or even worse…experiencing prolonged emotional trauma and or physical violence, that our human level of mercy, empathy and compassion will fail us utterly and it is then we desperately need the Lord to fill us with his unending supply.
People often ask, Why do we need to have the in filling of the Holy ghost in our lives?
Many of us know the four Bibical principles for the wanting the Holy ghost, salvation, edification, prayer, witnessing to others but here is a fifth reason, we need the Spirit of God to take up the slack in times of trouble.
When we can’t get to the place of mercy, when we don’t have the empathy we need, when compassion just is not there, we need to draw on another source. That source, of course is the spirit of God.
So who should we show mercy, empathy, compassion and forgiveness to?
Show Yourself a Little Kindness...
First – ourselves, that seems odd but you can’t give what you haven’t received.
Ministering mercy to yourself will bring a lot of peace and comfort in a situation of stress. Mercy is something none of us deserve, that is the whole point… ministering mercy means to let go of trying to punish yourself for wrongs or mistakes you have made. Beating yourself up is not true repentance it is the exact opposite it is penance, or punishing yourself for your humanity. It is wrong and it will only lead to shame, hurting yourself and making you a person who is very hard to live with. So start by letting go of perfectionism, of legalism, of demanding so much of yourself that you can’t possibly live up to… let it just go and minister a little grace and mercy to yourself.
If you can’t … then pray in tongues, until the victory comes. Until peace begins to reign in your heart. Repent of the wrongs you have done and then accept and receive the forgiveness that the Lord desires to give to you.
Life can throw hard circumstances at us, a failure in love, in our marriage with our children or career can leave lasting effects of real pain, suffering and can either make you better or make you bitter, depending on how you view the circumstances.
Forgiving yourself for failures can set you free, The Lord doesn’t hold these things against you when you have repented and neither should you, grow from the experience, learn form the experience but for your sake and the everyone around you…move on.
Show Your Family a Little Kindness.
Second – Minister grace, mercy, empathy and compassion to those in your immediate and extended family, your husband, your wife, your parents, your children grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins- the in-laws and the out-laws.
No one needs more grace, mercy, empathy and compassion than your immediate family, they need lots and they need it often.
Can I let you in on a secret?… Your family will disappoint you… they will let you down…they can even cause you great pain and sorrow…why,,, because they are human just like you are.
We often put the highest pressure on our family members to be perfect, to live up to our expectations, expectations we ourselves can’t possibly live up to.
Start ministering mercy, empathy and compassion to those you love most.
Peace will be the result.
Set them free of the unreasonable expectations, Just love them as they are for who they are.
Pray for them, so they can be the best they can be without having the pressure to be perfect applied to them.
Mercy chooses not to be offended and instead ministers empathy and compassion to produce healing and enables us to love to our families.
Compassion, goes beyond feeling and into the realm of suffering with the person, and allowing that suffering to change the way you interact with them, it will help you forgive them, and help heal past wrongs, it can save a marriage, a relationship, and bring together a family after loss, or tragedy, or suffering.
if you can’t do this within your human emotions the begin to pray for your family in tongues allowing the Holy Ghost to fill you with the emotions of the Spirit to bring about healing through the process of walking a mile in their shoes, or feeling what they feel, let that bring you to mercy, mercy will help you not become offended, and then allow mercy to bring you to empathy and finally into a place of real healing, helping, supporting and godly actions through compassion.
When we study the word of God we see the god of the Bible full of mercy, full of compassion it is from his very nature that we learn these valuable traits.
The Compassion of the Lord – Loving Kindness
We see in this passage compassion moved Christ to feed the multitudes.
And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”
Matthew 15:32
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Compassion,-Of-Christ/type/kjv
Here we see compassion leading to comfort, caring and teaching
When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.
Mark 6:34
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Mark/6/34
Here we see compassion leading to healing the sick.
Matthew 14:14
Verse Concepts
When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Compassion,-Of-Christ/type/kjv
Here we see compassion moving the Lord to forgive.
Psalm 78:38
Verse Concepts
But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them;Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Compassion
The Lord’s nature is that of compassion, mercy, empathy and lovingkindness. let us begin to learn the same. let us allow compassion to move us to act, to help those in need, to forgive, to minister grace to empathize with those we love and to love with kindness even those who have hurt us.
We can’t control circumstances, or people or situations but we cna control how when things calm down we react and how we treat ourselves, our families ,our neighbours and the world.
God bless
Psalm 103:8
Verse Concepts
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Compassion
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