EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/15/2026
6:48 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“Divine Compassion”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
7:13
Message of the verse: “When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion
for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”
Now I know that it is the Lord Jesus Christ talking to
this woman, but I’m not sure she knew who He was when He said to her “Do not
weep.” I can see that the Lords heart
went out to her and that truly is something that this woman really needed at
this time. The Lord felt compassion
for her. Compassion translates a for
of the verb splagchinizomai, which is related to a noun that describes
the inner parts of the body. In my case
the problem part of my body is guts, and this word speaks of that troubled
part. Like the modern use of “heart” or “gut,”
the inward parts of the body were viewed figuratively as the seat of the
emotions due to the physical effects such emotions have on the body.
MacArthur writes “One of the most
perverse misinterpretations of Scripture is the idea that the God of the Old
Testament is angry, wrathful, and vengeful, while the Lord Jesus Christ is
meek, compassionate, and loving. But the
Old Testament reveals God’s compassion, grace, and mercy, while in the New
Testament Christ cleansed the temple (Matt. 21:12-13; John 2:13-17), warned of
eternal damnation in hell (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 18:9; 23:33; 25:41; John 8:24),
was angry at sin (Mark 3:5), and warned His hearers,
“Do
you think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring
peace, but a sword. For I came to set a
man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the
members of his household. (Matt. 10:34-36).
“In contrast to the false deities of
other religions, it is the nature of the true and living God to feel compassion
for suffering sinners. Even after giving
His law and judging the idolaters who made the golden calf, He told Moses, ‘I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I
will show compassion’ (Ex. 33:19), and later described Himself as
“The
Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness
and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgive iniquity,
transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to
the third and fourth generations (Ex. 34:6-7)
“According
to Psalm 103:8, ‘The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and
abounding in lovingkindness,’ while
Psalm 116:5 exults, ‘Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yes, our God is
compassionate’ (cf. Deut. 4:31; 2 Chron. 30:9; Neh. 9:17, 31; Ps. 111:4; Lam.
3:22; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). God’s
compassion caused Him to deliver His people when ‘He could bear the misery of
Israel no longer’ (Judges 10:16); ‘He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity
and did not destroy them; and often He restrained His anger and did not arouse
all His wrath’ (Ps. 78:38).
“The New Testament portrays the Lord
Jesus Christ as a ‘merciful and faithful high priest’ (Heb. 2:17). He was not ‘a high priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as
we are, yet without sin’ (Heb. 4:15). He
repeatedly felt compassion for lost, suffering sinners (cf. Matt. 9:36; 14:14;
15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41). It was His
compassion that prompted the Lord, true to His nature as merciful, to comfort
this devastated woman, and say to her reassuringly, ‘Do not weep.’”
8/15/2026
7:16 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment