EYES OF COMPASSION

“When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, ‘Why are your faces downcast today?’”  (Genesis 40:6-7 ESV)

Joseph’s suffering gave him eyes of compassion.

In the midst of the storm, do you read the faces of people around you the way Joseph did? Most people wear on their faces what is going on inside of them.

Do you look for friends, coworkers, people who serve you, or children in your life, and notice if their faces are downcast? It is a paradox: Self-preoccupation is actually self-defeating and produces loneliness.

Joseph expressed his heart to his fellow prisoners in a single question: “Why are your faces downcast today?”

Someone noticed them. Someone cared about their lives. Words can do this. Every word you speak boosts someone’s hope a bit, or kills it just a little…

Here’s a little test: During the stormy periods in your life, how often have you expressed genuine concern for others when you have had nothing to gain? 

-- John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat”

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TRUSTING IN GOD’S CARE

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV)

God cares for you! Not only will He never leave you -- that’s the negative side of the promise -- but He cares for you. He is not just there with you, He cares for you. His care is constant -- not occasional or sporadic. His care is total -- even the hairs on of your head are numbered. His care is sovereign -- nothing can touch you that He does not allow. His care is infinitely wise and good so that in the words of John Newton, “If it were possible for me to alter any part of His plan, I could only spoil it.”

We must learn to cast all our anxieties on Him. Dr. John Brown says of this verse, “The figurative expression ‘cast,’ not lay, seems to intimate that the duty enjoined is one that requires an effort; and experience tells us it is no easy matter to throw off the burden of carefulness.” So we are back to the matter of choice. We must by an act of the will in dependence on the Holy Spirit say something such as, “Lord, I choose to cast off this anxiety onto You, but I cannot do this of myself. I will trust You by Your Spirit to enable me to, having cast my anxiety on You, not to take it back upon myself.” 

-- Jerry Bridges in “Trusting God”

THE FRIEND WHO CARES

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  (Ephesians 2:3-4 NIV)

What does it mean to care?… The word care finds its roots in the Gothic "Kara," which means "lament."  The basic meaning of care is to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out with.  I am very much struck by this background of the word care because we tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless, of the haves toward the have-nots.  And, in fact, we feel quite uncomfortable with an invitation to enter into someone's pain before doing something about it.

Still, when we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.

-- Henri Nouwen in “Out of Solitude”


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YOU MATTER TO ME

It’s what a bride and groom are really saying to each other when the exchange their vows. It’s what a parent means when he says to his child, “If you ever need to talk, I’ll be here.” It’s what a young baby-toting wife means when she says to her departing GI husband, “I’ll think of you every day.” It’s what a doctor means when he stares into the jaundiced eyes of a dying patient and says, “We’ll do everything we can.”

All great promises say “You matter to me.”

That’s what makes a broken promise so painful. Nothing hurts quite as badly as the realization that someone you trusted doesn’t care after all.

If your faith needs refilling, I would recommend that you thumb through the Bible with a highlight marker in your hand and look for the promises Jesus made to you. Here are a few to start: Matthew 11:28, Luke 18:29-30, John 8:12, Revelation 3:5.

Woven into the fabric of these and many other promises is the simple message that our Lord cares about us. In spite of our failures, we matter to Him. If we didn’t, there would be no logical reason for Him to make such commitments. 

-- Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”


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CASTING YOUR CARES ON THE LORD

"Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you." -- Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

The word "cast" brings a picture of throwing or pushing away and that is exactly what we must learn to do with our worldly cares. Jesus can handle them. We sometimes give them a nice kick toward the Lord in a sort of ceremonial way, but hang on just enough to stay involved! We may actually be thinking, "Well, I can handle this or that myself;" and that thinking gets us into trouble. We try to fix, control or otherwise manipulate situations that we should have left to our Lord. Fling your cares toward our loving Lord and enjoy the freedom of living!

-- Rev. Gary Stone

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