Compassion

Over the last week or two I have found it immensely hard to love people. Call it being tired, call it not getting in enough time with God, or call it just human nature. But whatever you call it, I've had a hard time loving and wanting to be around people.

When looking at my personality and character, I know that I lack compassion a lot of the time. Things that other people would weep at, I'm not as moved. I'm more of a rock. A rock that lacks compassion.

During these last two weeks of finding it hard to love people I've been thinking a lot about the difference that time with God makes in my life. I can see an actual difference in the way that I interact with people when I have spent time with God or not. When I allow the Holy Spirit to fill me and have more say in my life, then I am better able to love people. However when I neglect to give control to the Holy Spirit, then my nature raises up and I like people less.

I was praying about that today and talking to God about compassion. And in our conversation I realized that compassion is a choice. I can choose to have compassion on someone or not. Just because I spend time with God does not mean I will automatically have compassion for people. But it does mean that I will be more aware of myself and the people around me and the decision I have to choose compassion. Compassion is a choice. I may not even feel like it, but I can still choose to let the Holy Spirit rule in me and have compassion on people.

The further I walk with God, the more I realize we are greatly responsible for holding up our end of the bargain. Too often we pray for God to do something in us when we are unwilling to make nay changes. We pray and expect God to just automatically change us without any effort on our parts. This however is not how it works. We too must put in effort. We must choose to walk in the ways that we are seeking God about. Until then ......