Though I've thought myself to be "big-hearted" and genuinely caring, I've literally experienced with each word printed a feeling of expansion within my heart as if my already big heart has gotten bigger yet with each word I've typed! As it has expanded, I've made room for you in my heart and I truly pray for you in your hour of need for God to cross your path with a yielded vessel of the Lord's who will allow His love and compassion to flow out to you and to meet your every need, and also that He would flow through YOU and touch others with His compassion.
Our time is so short on this earth and I believe in my heart that we are well into the last and final hour of the church before Jesus returns and I promise you, fellow-ministers and fellow-believers, that we will accomplish far more for Jesus with compassion that we ever could with preaching, teaching, and singing all combined! The best meal you could ever prepare is unlikely to be enjoyed, remembered, or even desired if you fail to include the proper seasonings. Those exact seasonings listed on the recipe take the already good food and cause it to taste, smell, and look the best it possibly could. You'll even remember just how good it was, so much so that you'll tell others and even try preparing it yourself while you're hoping and praying that you can get invited to such a feast, again real soon! Our being filled with and moved with compassion will have essentially the same kind of effect on those whom we serve in our dear Lord's Name.
We've seen how essential and important that compassion was in the ministry of Jesus. Every person who experienced his supernatural, miracle-working power knew that all they needed was for Jesus to have compassion on them and that was a definite guarantee that they would receive miraculous results!
I want to share something very important with you that will apply in your personal, professional, social, and spiritual life. Compassion is far more essential in our everyday life than you may have realized, as well as in ministry. Compassion is the key that will unlock the hidden mysteries that exist in most of the people I know.
Do you know why you are here on earth? Do you know what you are called to do? Do you know how to be successful in whatever direction you've taken in your life? Do you ever feel that regardless of how good or how bad your life or current situation is, that something deep within just isn't complete and you do not know what to do, you don't know what's missing, how to find out, nor who can accurately give you proper counsel that will help you locate just exactly who you are, where you belong, what you are to do, or how to find out just what it is that you don't know and which of these questions apply to you? Assuming you know your calling or gift, has it been a constant struggle, totally, completely, up-hill climb?
While we've looked closely at the accomplishments, effects, results, and unmistakable differences made in the lives we've observed which can be accredited to the compassion of Jesus, I want us to look closely at the word compassion. If you chop off the last three letters of the word compassion, you have the word compass. A compass, which we all know, is an instrument we can use to locate ourselves and get our sense of direction. I find it interesting that the compass needle always points to the north. In Psalms 48:2, we can read where it says, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great king". The city of our great King is located in the north! Once we get in position to where the needle points to the north, we can accurately see what direction we're going in, and accurately locate the south, east, and west.
Compassion is a compass to locate the real you and not only what would be the more successful choices you might make, but what would be the more significant choices? The world and often the church tend to judge our spirituality by outward successes but the greatest successes should be measured by their significance. Significance means basically, to make a difference. Those significant successes are the ones that will be remembered long after we're gone!