Have you noticed times when you were so busy with your own life that you hardly noticed the people around you? We have jobs, families, and a long list of other responsibilities that can keep us so focused on what we need to get done that it’s easy to forget that the people around us may need something from us. God wants His love to flow through us to other people, to be His hands and feet to them, but we’re never going to be that until we begin to open our eyes and hearts of compassion to see the needs around us.
Perhaps that’s what happened to the priest and the religious Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told in Luke 10. They both saw a wounded man lying at the side of the road and kept on walking, but the Samaritan “saw him and had compassion on him.” He bandaged him up, put him on his donkey, took him to an inn, and gave the innkeeper money for his care. Jesus' simple word to us is: “Go and do likewise. Love your neighbor as yourself. Open your heart of compassion. Let Me use you to help others in need.”
All through the Gospels we read that wherever Jesus went He was moved with compassion for people. He didn’t just feel sorry for those in need. He didn’t say, “Oh, well, that’s too bad. I’m too busy to help.” No, His compassion moved Him to action. In the same way, the Scripture says about us, “If anyone…sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live in him?” (1 John 3:17). We all have a heart of compassion that God wants to work through toward others, and it can either be open or shut. If it is shut off, God’s love cannot flow out of it. If we’re going to live the abundant life that God has given us, we need to stir up our heart of compassion and say, “God, open my heart and my eyes to see the people who need my love today.”
Compassion is powerful. Compassion brings forth miracles. We need to be aware of the people whom God puts on our heart. When you feel compassion moving in you toward someone, you never know the impact of what a phone call can do or the significance of your words when you say, “Hey, I’m thinking about you. I care about you. I love you. I’m praying for you.” Recognize that God is saying, “Move now. Reach out. Be there. Listen. Help in any way you can.” It might just heal a heart, turn someone’s life around, and change the course of their destiny!