Full of Compassion

     "The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion" (Psalm 145:8).   

The Psalmist declares God to be "full" of the caring involvement that makes the sorrows of others His sorrows.  "We have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews4:15).  We do not hurt alone because the God of the Bible is drawn to troubled hearts instantly, devotedly, and with the desire to administer comfort to all who will receive Him.   

The reception of God's comfort depends upon our willingness to know and experience Him as He is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our Savior is the way into His Father's heart, and the way of His Father's heart into ours.  Comfort offered becomes comfort received when we seek it through the name, person and work of the Lord Jesus.  "Our consolation also aboundeth by Christ" (II Corinthians 1:5).  The balm of Gilead flows through the wounds of Christ, as it were, and those who draw near to Him in sorrow draw comfort from Him through the Holy Spirit's tender ministrations (Jeremiah 46:11).          "In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and He heard me" (Psalm 120:1).    

God's trusting children in Christ never hurt alone.  The glistening of our tears beckons His heart even as they form in our eyes.  He cares for us.  He hurts with us.  Our pains are His no less than they are ours, and in truth, they are His morethan they are ours.  This we must know about our Father because it is true, and because the comforted Christian becomes the comfortingChristian unto others.  Indeed, the more we know the God "full of compassion," the more we will become like Him.  The more we will care, and the more the sorrows of others will be viewed as our sorrows.  Most importantly, His comforting balm will flow through the conduit of the wounds of Calvary, and through our Christ-filled hearts of compassion.

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."(II Corinthians 13-5)