Today's
Word for Thursday MAY 16, 2013
SYMPATHY
DEFINITION:
The
practice or capacity to share in the feelings of another person especially in
times of sorrow or trouble.
SCRIPTURE:
All
of you, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be
compassionate and humble. I Peter 3:8
Bear
one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
I
have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the
weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, "It is more
blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35
KNOWLEDGE
AND EXPERIENCE:
Many
people have trouble showing any kind of sympathy to others in their time of
need. One of the reasons for this, we believe, is because of the selfish
"me only" thinking generation that we live in. When someone
constantly thinks of self only they really do not care about the feelings or
situations of others and they have no communication with God so there is no
spiritual understanding of caring for others.
Do
you have a sympathetic heart? How do you react when you see a hungry child, a
lonely woman, a sick baby or a homeless family? Most people today, when they
see these things, they walk right past them showing no concern or interest.
Being
in the ministry we constantly run into situations where sympathy is needed for
someone in a hurting situation. In today's environment people are losing jobs,
losing their homes, facing economic concerns, need food, live in a
dysfunctional family situation and broken marriages. And then there are those
who are injured, dealing with a dreadful disease or suffering physical pain.
It
is also important to mention that there are many people today that are lonely.
They have no one to talk to, no one to help them in a time of need, and no one
to share their concerns with. These people are looking for sympathy and they
have difficulty finding anyone that even cares.
In
I Peter 3:8 (above), Peter gives us five qualities that should be evident in
the life of every believer. These qualities are first, to live in harmony,
second, to be sympathetic, thirdly, to love each other as brothers, fourthly,
to be compassionate and fifth to be humble. As believers we are to be
sympathetic and compassionate which means when we see someone in need we must
reach out to them in loving concern and doing what we can to help and comfort
them.
The
scripture tells us that if we are sympathetic as believers we need to be
willing to bear the burdens of others. (Read the verse above from Galatians).
Burdens are problems and issues that someone must bear. They can be physical or
spiritual. The law of Christ is love and is covered in the teachings of Christ
and Jesus desires us to fulfill His command by following His example and
showing love and sympathy to those who are burdened down by heartache and
trouble.
We
also need to be willing to help the weak (Acts 20:35 above). Paul says that he
showed us by his own hard work so that we should not be selfish but to be an
example, especially a spiritual example to those who are weak. As believers we
are to express sympathy to those in sorrow and offer to help those around us
who are in need.
Read
again the last part of Acts 20:35 (above) that says that Jesus tells us
that" IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE." All of us today
need to learn to be sympathetic to the needs of those people that we meet every
day. Our Lord expects this from us. When we give, the blessing will be ours.
LEARNING:
Our
memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 118:24.
This
is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
PRAYER:
Help
me to be sensitive to the needs of others so that I may know when someone needs
sympathy. Give me a helping attitude and as the scripture says, may I learn
that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
