Hope for the Hurting: For the Hurting: Encouragement for Suffering Seasonsنموونە

Have you ever studied all the times when Scripture talks about or reveals God’s compassion? Matthew 9:36 provides a beautiful glimpse of Jesus’ heart. It reads, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

Jesus saw them. What a beautiful truth. He saw their hurts, struggles and fears, their deepest longings and greatest regrets. He saw the people as deeply, as fully, as He sees me and you.

God knows us fully and yet loves us deeply and eternally. He doesn’t view us with anger, frustration, or apathy, but instead, with compassion.

Perhaps because, like the people referenced in Matthew 9, He recognizes that, apart from Him we are helpless and harassed. In the original Greek, the word our Bible translates as harassed carries the intensity of one who has been flayed, mangled, and is distressed. I can understand why first-century Jews might have felt this way. Living under Roman oppression, they were forced to pay outlandish taxes to a government they resented, along with a temple tax, and whatever corrupt collectors demanded as they became rich at the expense of the poor.

But the people were harassed by an even greater force, one that drove, and drives, every injustice humanity faces. Our most relentless enemy the devil roams around like a roaring lion. He watches us closely, waiting until we're at our weakest. Then he moves in, sneaking into our arguments, tiptoeing into our fears, and whispering his lies into the most wounded places in our souls.

The devil employs two predictable strategies: The first is to blind us to his schemes entirely so that we’ll fight his other victims rather than finding strength in the loving embrace of Christ. When that doesn’t work, he tries to convince us that he holds more power than he possesses.

But the One who sees our helplessness and the harassment we suffer, looks upon us with a compassion that moves Him to action. He is our victorious, ever-present Shepherd, and we are His loved and well-cared for sheep.

~Warmly, Jennifer Slattery