Today I Choose Compassion...

Today I choose compassion. To Praise God for his compassion on me, to show compassion to others and to those around me with love, kindness and grace.
I love how God works! He has already had us focus on love, kindness and grace; all three words that are the essence of compassion. Not only is our God loving, kind, gracious and faithful (just to name a few), he is compassionate towards us!
In the Old Testament we see God's compassion poured out on the Israelites time and time again as God graciously answered their call for help after they had turned to evil. Nehemiah 9:19 says, "'Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.'"According to Psalm 103:13 "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him." We have a God that shows us constant compassion even though we mess up and give into temptation and sin. "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made."
If we sit down and really think about our sinful human nature, we should begin to realize all that we are guilty of. We sin on a regular basis, our first reaction is often in the flesh not in faith and we are born selfish. The amazing thing about God is that through all of that gunk that makes a human, God shows us compassion and mercy. I love the saying "Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve." That sums up God and we should be praising him constantly for his compassion on us.
Colossians 3:12-14 gives us our charge as believers. "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." I know for myself my first reaction is often judgment instead of compassion. We should be treating others with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and love. We should show compassion because God shows us compassion. We need to be a sounding board for others when they are struggling and offer them encouragement instead of secretly judging them, thinking that we would have handled that SO much better.
And when we are the one struggling we must remember that God is compassionate and loving and he is always there in our time of need. Remember the example of Job, he lost everything and he never turned his back on God. And what happened in the end, God blessed him and made him more prosperous than he was before. James 5:11 says, "As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."
I want to be a person of great compassion towards others and one how boldly speaks of the Lord's compassion in my life. So today I choose compassion!