Giant, It's Time for You to Come Down!ਨਮੂਨਾ

Day 3: Faith-powered Compassion

Faith may be the most important tool in our personal battles, but we have to recognize that it is not just for ourselves. When we look at Jesus’ giant-killing faith, we can see that it didn’t just give Him peace on the inside, but compassion that extended to the people all around Him.

Compassion in the Dark Places

In faith, Jesus crossed the sea, through a storm, for one person, just one, and it wasn’t the kind of person you would want to minister to. This man was a demoniac living in the local graveyard. Night and day, he was tormented by an unclean spirit, screaming, cutting himself, and breaking chains off of himself.

This was a dark and dangerous place, but this was the man that Jesus, in His faith, came for. To go into this kind of atmosphere takes compassion beyond yourself and your fears and discomfort. That compassion will move past fear, inconvenience, hardship, and suffering, and it comes straight from God.

We can see that it comes with God’s mighty power, too, because when Jesus came close with that compassionate faith, the devils inside this man started begging Jesus to leave them alone. This devil recognized Jesus’ authority, and when you step into your faith, into that compassion and authority, the devil trembles because he knows he's defeated.

Active Compassion

Jesus was filled with this kind of compassion that is rooted in faith and brings God’s will and power with it. In Luke 7, when He saw a funeral leaving a city, with this grieving woman and a group of the neighbors who came to support her, He was moved. This funeral was nothing unusual, but then compassion interrupted, fueled by faith, and it made that ordinary day extraordinary.

Jesus saw this woman grieving for her son, and He had compassion for her. Started into action by this compassion, Jesus moved in faith to do what He knew His Father wanted to do: raise this woman’s son from the dead.

The woman didn’t ask for that. She wasn’t expecting it. The crowd didn’t pressure Him. This was a miracle produced from Jesus’ own actions. He let compassion infused with faith move Him, and it raised that woman’s son from the dead, and that faith and power come from the same presence that is in your body right now.

Friend, it is time for us to embrace the faith that God put in us when we were born again. If He tells you to speak to someone, do it. If He tells you to lay hands on someone, do it. Maybe you're afraid, so just do it afraid. Just be obedient. You'll see that when you obey that compassionate call of God, He’ll give you the courage to speak and the right words to say, and you will bring life and light to another person.

Questions to Discuss

1. Is there something you see or hear about that stirs compassion in you? Why might the Lord be putting this compassion in your heart?
2. Jesus’ compassion extended even to those that others might have been afraid of or disgusted by. Do you have any fears or disgust holding you back from compassion? Take a moment to confess these barriers and give them up to God.
3. Jesus’ faith and compassion were active, not passive. What are some active shows of faith, big or small, that you can make today?