Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 145:8-13
Ps 145:8-13
8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. 10 All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. 11 They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, 12 so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
There are a lot of traits of God described in various scriptures but there is none that is spoken of more often than is his compassion. As with everything he does, it stems from his character. His compassion is not something that he just puts into practice on occasions but it comes from the fact that God is love. He loves and is therefore filled with mercy which is demonstrated in compassion.
As we study the life of Jesus, we see those caught up in sin, or some trying to trap him in his words or when he looked over the multitude or wept over Jerusalem and was filled with compassion. Jesus healed the sick, taught the lost and encouraged the weak because of his compassion toward them.
We might would have wanted to get even with them or retaliate toward them for doing us harm. Or we might have jumped on the bandwagon of thought and condemned others for the things they were doing instead of truly feeling sorry for them and wanting to help them. It is easy for us to be impatient, filled with anger, frustration or harsh judgment toward others and especially when we see them as being different or we disagree with them on some major (at least major to us at the time) issue. Just maybe our problem is that we have not learned to love as God loves us so we so we don’t seek to forgive others when possible.
Bankers are commonly thought to come in two types; those who want to make a loan and seek ways to do so or those who don’t and try to find ways of getting out of doing it. Do we seek to love, understand, have mercy and compassion while seeking a way to forgive or do we look for a way to judge and condemn?
Heavenly Father, forgive me for not loving others as you love me. Forgive me for not being filled with the mercy, compassion and grace you have shown me in so many ways. Keep me from being bitter, harsh, unkind, unloving and unforgiving as I face those around me who actually deserve these feelings. Help me be like you as you loved me and extended your grace and forgiveness to me, even when I did not and do not deserve it. Help me encourage those who are weak and help those who are struggling. Please be with those who are sick and especially the elderly as they face the golden years of their lives. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
