If you take your neighbors cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can I sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
Exodus 22:26-27
God hears all of our concerns because he is compassionate.
At this point on their journey to the holy land, Moses is explaining all the rules and regulations for the Israelites to follow. If you just hear the laws you may feel restricted and confined, like God is just being harsh, but in actuality, he gives these laws because he loves his people. God is wanting to protect and guide those who follow him so they don’t fall into harms way. He also wants to lay out laws to guide humans in social responsibility to grow in the same compassion that he has for us.
….Love thy neighbor as thy self….
So what is being compassionate? “ The Merriam-Webster definition of compassionate is having compassion — the sympathetic consciousness of others distress together with a desire to alleviate it.“
God is this. God is compassionate. He looks at us and he listens to us because of his love and compassion for us. He hears our cries even those that aren’t audible to the human ear, but are crying out from our spirit. Because of compassion, he desires to help us, heal us, and lead us onto a path that is filled with compassion for others.
God‘s laws aren’t here to restrict us; God‘s Word isn’t here to restrain us from Joy. The law and the Word fulfilled through Jesus Christ are actually here to give us ABUNDANT life. Abundant life filled with compassion, love, joy, and peace. ALL the things that Jesus’ life embodies. The life that he had planned for us before the Fall.
Through God’s compassion for us, he is sowing seeds of compassion in us. He desires to help us, so that we will desire to help others. And if we are helping others, then hurting others can’t happen because healing comes from compassionate helping. He is showing us through his compassion for us how to be compassionate for others.
So, He hears our every cry to him, even those we think are too simple for him to answer and to minor for him to care. Through His Son and the presence of the Holy Spirit, he brings peace and to our hearts, he heals wounds we thought we’d have forever, he provides for our greatest and least needs, he weeds out unforgiveness and plants forgiveness, and he sows seeds of compassion growing fields of Abundant Joy.
Running 2 Fly 