“You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36, NLT)
I only have this one life. The moment will come when it is too late to do anything about what I have needed to do. Nothing will bring the opportunity again. It came only once. Now, while I have the chance, I will love with His love, and then all things are possible. Even the most difficult thing becomes easier when offered with His love.
Nothing is impossible when I have experienced the compassionate love of Jesus Christ. Nothing is too difficult in Him. If I want to be His hands and His feet, then I must seek His heart and His mind. And in truly seeking, and truly surrendering, He will be able to move me and use me as never before. Who do I have an opportunity to love with His love and I have hesitated? Is it someone who has hurt or offended me? I can't love with His love if I can't forgive. Perhaps I don't even call it unforgiveness. Perhaps I call it hurt or rejection. If it consumes me, I haven't forgiven. The pain has become my obsession instead of God. It is only in His love that I experience perfect peace found in forgiveness. I choose to let bitterness go and love with the compassion with which He loved me. As I receive His compassion and give it away without hesitation, the hardness of my hurting heart will melt away.
An opportunity will come that will not come again. I will make the most of what I am offered. Life is short, but His Spirit is so willing. In surrender and in the giving myself away, I will receive more than I ever thought possible. “Give, and you will receive,” Jesus says. “Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6:38, NLT). He speaks to me from the gift of His life for mine. I will be compassionate as He has been compassionate to me. It will return in full, pressed down and running over, with even greater opportunity to give His love away again and again.
Copyright 2017 Lynn Hampton Lacher
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