ELUL DAY 19
POINTS TO PONDER AND CONSIDER
1. If you took an honest look at how many times you experienced envy over the past year of your life; what would that look like? How has it affected your thinking, your attitude, your overall disposition and possibly your actions?
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2. Can you name any ways that envy has brought damage to your soul?
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3. Can you see where envy can quickly become a trap where everyone loses?
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4. Have you confessed any envy to God and asked Him to give you the strength to overcome and avoid temptations in the future? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. How do you plan to practice the art of contentment in the new civil year that is upon us soon?
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6. Can you see the sadness in discontentment and the joy in overcoming? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ELUL MEDITATION DAY 19
THE COMPASSION OF GOD
PHOTO BY ANNA SHEVETS (FROM PEXELS)
One of the first attributes we know about God is that He is compassionate.
He showed us compassion even before mankind committed the first sin.
We know this because of the way He provided The Light Of The World (Jesus Christ) for us from the very foundations of the world.
Before He made the earth God said let there be light and there was light. This wasn’t ordinary light, like the light from the sunshine or the light from moonshine, or the light of the stars of the heavens. They were not even created yet.
The very first light that God created was Christ; The Light of the World.
After that; Christ was with God for all of the rest of Creation and together with God’s Holy Spirit, they showed love and compassion for mankind; from the very beginning of everything.
TO SUFFER TOGETHER
The word “compassion” literally means to suffer together. While “empathy” refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person; “compassion” is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help.
From our very first breath of life; God desires to help us. Christ came down from Heaven in order to take our suffering upon Himself. A way was made for us; even before we were made. That is what a compassionate God would do; He would think ahead of the needs of those that He loves and He would immediately make a provision.
PERFECT PROVISION
Providing Christ as a sacrificial offering for our sins took great compassion on God’s part. This was the Son who had been not only “with” Him always; but the One who was perfectly a part of His Being. Christ and God are One. Their love is sent out to us through The Holy Spirit that they give to live within us.
The Holy Spirit joins us together with The GodHead; the Three-In-One God who was so compassionate about His creation that He gave a part of Himself from the very beginnings of our time so that we could always find our way to Him.
LEARNING TO MIRROR GOD’S COMPASSION
As Elul continues let us stay focused on the beautiful attribute of God called compassion.
We need to try to mirror this godly way of life. Humans need more compassion, and we can find how to attain it by praying and asking God to show us. Who would be better to show us the path to compassion than our Heavenly Father?
There is none like Him!
Let us look upon Him and find compassion to share with the rest of His creation. True compassion such as He has requires many elements.
ELEMENTS OF COMPASSION
It requires strength, patience, perseverance and love.
Let us go through our day today thinking on these things.
To help us dwell in this place of compassion; which could be described as love in action; let us turn to a favorite passage of scripture found in 1 Corinthians; Chapter 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
LOVE IN ACTION
Compassion is love in action.
God is our perfect example.
Can we show Him and others this same treatment that He has first showed us?