THE
GRACE OF EMPATHY
BREAD
14 Therefore,
since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high
priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has
been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:14-15 (NIV)
17 For
this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God. Hebrews 2:17 (NIV)
18 Because
he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being
tempted. Hebrews 2:18 (NIV)
3 Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and
the God of all comfort, 4 who
comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
8 We do
not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the
province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to
endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt
the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves
but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he
will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver
us. 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (NIV)
15 Rejoice
with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Romans 12:15 (NIV)
1 So
when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in
Athens. 2 We
sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the
gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be
unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for
them. 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3 (NIV)
12 See to
it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away
from the living God. 13 But
encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you
may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:12-13 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The
Oxford Dictionary defines empathy/empathize as understanding and sharing in the
feelings of someone else, relating to and having insight into the
circumstances/feelings of another, putting yourself in their place. It is different from sympathy/sympathize
which is feeling sorry for someone. Empathy flows from a heart that has walked as
the other has walked and has felt both the pain and the joy of the like circumstance
and is now on the other side. It comes from
one who is faithful to call back from the Valley of Baca (tears) to the one who
is still in the midst – helping them to go from ‘strength to strength’. Who has not been exquisitely ministered to by
someone who has lived through like circumstances? Isn’t that who we seek out when going
through our throes? In God’s great economy
it is one way of His making beauty out of our ashes as we walk alongside
encouraging others with kindred struggles as our own.” BHY
“In community with other believers, as we humble ourselves
and open up to receive from the body of Christ, we will be strengthened to see
the full kaleidoscope of His plan and be encouraged in the grace of waiting.” Sylvia Gunter
“Encouragement costs you nothing to give, but it is priceless to receive.” Anonymous
“Encouragement costs you nothing to give, but it is priceless to receive.” Anonymous
“If
you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back – ‘Twill cheer my heart and
help my feet along the stony track; And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim,
because the oil is low, Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I
go. Call back, and tell me that he went
with you into the storm; Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots
were torn; That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill, He
bore you up and held you where the very air was still. Oh, friend, call back, and tell me for I
cannot see your face, They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in
the race; But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim, And I
cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him. But if you’ll say He heard you when your
prayer was but a cry, And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened
sky If you have gone a little way ahead, of friend, call back – ‘Twill cheer my
heart an help my feet along the stony track.”
Mrs. Charles Cowman
“On Him
then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend:
and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help
from Him, He will never fail you. An
older brother, who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this,
says for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest
trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but
because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for
my help. I delight in speaking well of
His Name.” George Mueller
“If I were a pastor, I would want to
preach in the spirit of the New Covenant, inviting everyone in the congregation
to see the heart of God revealed in the cross of Christ. I would encourage them to interpret all of
life’s hardships not as problems to fix or struggles to relieve or pain to
deaden, but as important elements in a larger story that all God’s children
long to tell. I would urge them to
accept wherever they are on the journey, whether happy or miserable, as the
place where God will meet them, where He loves them, where He will continue to
work in them. And I would offer my own life as a growing, struggling, sometimes
painfully unattractive example of what doing that might mean. I would beg God to deliver me from
Calvary-denying sermons, which leave people feeling scolded and pressured….I
would ask God to never let me again preach an Eden-denying message where
psychological insights replace biblical wisdom in a misguided effort to repair
emotional damage when the real problem is a serpent-inspired determination to
experience life without God.” Larry Crabb
“One
of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement…It is easy to laugh
at men’s ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy
to discourage others. The world is full
of discouragers. We have a Christian
duty to encourage one another. Many a
time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his
feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such
a word.” William Barclay
HEART
SAVOR
- · I am to comfort others with the comfort I have received.
- · I am to “call back” to others telling them of God’s faithfulness through all circumstances He allows in my life.
- · Empathy encourages others forward.
