TODAY’S DEVOTION (Thursday 6th March 2025)
“But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:13-17 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 65TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
The LORD has been gracious and kind. It is 65 days already in the new year. We give Him the praise. The Bible says He is full of compassion that is why it never runs dry. Among other things, His compassion is responsible for our being here.
Yes, God’s compassion does not run dry. It is always available to all. It is available to the righteous and the sinner. However, the one available to the righteous is far more, because it takes more battles and costs to be righteous in a wicked world than to be sinful and ungodly.
The world is built by its dark prince to have compassion on the sinner and ungodly, and be full of hate for the righteous, upright at heart or the one who urges it to follow the ways of GOD. It is because of some of these things that God’s compassion for the righteous rank higher.
If He does not show compassion on the righteous, the righteous will be eliminated from the earth by the hate of the wicked. God has a history of showing come compassion to those who are doing His blessed will and less compassion to those who are not.
Yes, His compassion is for all, but the one He shows to the righteous is always more. Do not let that depart from your heart. That is why the Bible says we should come boldly to His throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So, as a child of God who is striving daily to resist sin, live right and do God’s blessed will, God’s compassion for you is greater. The Bible says as a father pities his children, or have compassion for them, so the LORD pities or show compassion to those who fear Him.
THE WORD COMPASSION HAS BEEN DEFINED AS SYMPATHETIC PITY AND CONCERN FOR THE SUFFERING OR MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS.
God wants every of His child to be compassionate, but many are not. It is in our compassion towards others that His compassion towards them is revealed. That is why His compassion towards us is designed to propel us to show compassion to others. If we do not allow it to function by that design, like the unforgiving servant did, we will be hurled up into suffering and misfortune without seeing divine intervention coming from the LORD.
Many are suffering today and not seeing lasting intervention because they do not care about the sufferings of others. Sometimes if you do not want to see suffering and misfortune in your own life, live a life that eliminates suffering and misfortune from the life of others.
Yes, live a life that is full of sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering and misfortune of others. That is one way to be Godly. It is one way to be Christlike. But do it with grace and wisdom. Grace will protect you from bearing the cost, because sometimes compassion can be very costly, and wisdom is profitable to direct.
So, if you are properly directed in how and who to show compassion to, and protected by God’s grace, being compassionate will not destroy you. It will rather put a blessing from the LORD on you.
History is littered with the death of people who showed compassion without wisdom and grace from the LORD. God will not want you to be part of that history. His wisdom and grace should guide you.
THE WISDOM COMES WHEN WE LIVE A PRAYERFUL LIFE THAT IS BALANCE WITH A LIFE OF PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY.
A major part of our devotional text says,
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,”
The phrase “by the inspiration of God” means by God’s breath. When we study what was given by God’s breath as a lifestyle, we get our hearts sharpened or receptive enough to receive adequate breath of wisdom from heaven whenever we want to decide in life, including the decision to show compassion to others.
When you come to that place, you will not need to be retreating every now and then, to ask what the LORD’s will is. You will just know what His will is, and what wisdom to apply as occasion serves you. If we do not do that, we will remain casualties of our own compassion.
Yes, you can be a casualty of your compassion, and it is not a good thing to be.
People who are casualties of their own compassion cannot be delivered until they become guided by divine wisdom and protected by God’s grace in how they show compassion. I have been one and have met quite a lot of people who are suffering as casualties of their compassion.
In Bible history, we find the stories of men like Samson and King Ahab whose compassion cost them a lot.
Samson had to die as a man who never managed his affection and compassion properly, and it all began when he became a casualty of his compassion. His life should remind us of ours. I think I still have a lot of problems when it comes to showing compassion. If not for the mercy of God, my life and ministry would have ended long ago due to misguided compassion.
The enemy would have used my compassion towards certain people to ruin me completely. Friend, God want us to show mercy and walk in compassion towards others, but He does not want any of us to become casualties of our compassion.
HE DOES NOT WANT US TO BE DESTROYED BY OUR GOOD DEEDS LIKE SAMSON, AHAB AND EVEN JONATHAN WERE DESTROYED.
The Bible says king Ahab’s foolish compassion, gave his life as an exchanged for the life of the person God wanted JUDGED and corrected. His actions teach us that if we show compassion to those God wants judged for their sins, our life could either go for their own or with their own.
For Ahab, his life was given as an exchanged for the life of the King of Syria that God wanted judged. But for Jonathan, the son of Saul, his life was not given as an exchanged, it rather went down with the life of the one he had compassion on, his father, who God was judging because of his rebellion and sin.
The life of king Ahab teaches that the evil one and his evil men, can take advantage of our compassion to escape the LORD’s retribution, and when they do, our life will go for their lives. We see that in plain sight in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible says,
“Then he said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’ ”
So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and displeased, and came to Samaria.” 1 kings 20:42-43 NKJV
May this word not be our portion!! May we not extend compassion to the wrong persons and loose our jobs, marriages, careers, finances, children, wives, husbands, or life in exchange in Jesus precious name.
As we bring this to a close, we want to share another meaning of compassion with us. The word compassion also means “to suffer together.” It is a deep concern that arises when you are confronted with another person’s suffering. It comes with a strong pull or motivation to relieve the suffering or eliminate it completely.
God wants us to be strictly guided by His wisdom and adequately protected by His grace when suffering together with others to eliminate what they might be going through.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” Jude 1:2023 NKJV