El­der Arnold Gopeesingh

“And Je­sus went about all the cities and vil­lages, teach­ing in their syn­a­gogues, preach­ing the gospel of the king­dom, and heal­ing every sick­ness and every dis­ease among the peo­ple. But when he saw the mul­ti­tudes, he was moved with com­pas­sion on them, be­cause they faint­ed and were scat­tered abroad, as sheep hav­ing no shep­herd” (Matthew 9:35 and 36).

The word “com­pas­sion” de­notes a deep aware­ness of and sym­pa­thy for the suf­fer­ing of oth­ers, cou­pled with a de­sire to al­le­vi­ate that suf­fer­ing.

The orig­i­nal He­brew word for “com­pas­sion” is “racham,” which speaks of a moth­er’s ten­der love for her child. Al­so in Greek, the word “splanch­ni­zomai” sig­ni­fies be­ing moved in one’s in­ner­most be­ing, of­ten lead­ing to ac­tion.

While our coun­try is go­ing through a rough sea­son for var­i­ous rea­sons, such as the eco­nom­ic down­turn, crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, the ris­ing cost of liv­ing, and the need for jobs among many, we must not al­low this to hard­en our hearts.

This can hap­pen to the best of us due to what is tak­ing place in our en­vi­ron­ment; peo­ple can go in­to sur­vival mode where you are on­ly see­ing your­self and those close­ly con­nect­ed to you.

Paul the Apos­tle wrote in 2 Tim­o­thy 3:1 to 4: “Know al­so that in the last days per­ilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, cov­etous, boast­ers, proud, blas­phe­mers, dis­obe­di­ent to par­ents, un­thank­ful, un­holy, with­out nat­ur­al af­fec­tion, truce­break­ers, false ac­cusers, in­con­ti­nent, fierce, de­spis­ers of those that are good, trai­tors, heady, high-mind­ed, and lovers of plea­sures more than lovers of God.”

I firm­ly be­lieve that we are liv­ing in the last days, as you look at what is tak­ing place on the world front.

The scrip­ture clear­ly shows us that be­cause of the times that we are liv­ing in, there will be some neg­a­tive be­hav­iour by peo­ple where­by the love of God can be pushed aside. You be the judge by tak­ing a good look around right in Trinidad and To­ba­go at the way we treat each oth­er at times and the high lev­el of vi­o­lence that is shown among us.

Amidst all that is tak­ing place, com­pas­sion and em­pa­thy must nev­er leave us.

Now, this is an in­di­vid­ual thing, and as we look at the life of Je­sus Christ, we can see this demon­strat­ed con­sis­tent­ly to the peo­ple who were around Him.

The word of God states in He­brews 4:15 and 16, “For we have not a high priest which can­not be touched with the feel­ing of our in­fir­mi­ties, but was in all points tempt­ed like as we are, yet with­out sin. Let us there­fore come bold­ly un­to the throne of grace that we may ob­tain mer­cy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Je­sus Christ knew and felt the pain of the hu­man race and the peo­ple of His time; our Lord and Sav­iour Je­sus Christ un­der­stood the suf­fer­ing that they were go­ing through at the hands of the Ro­man Em­pire.

In the world that we live in, it is good prac­tice to care for oth­ers, un­der­stand­ing where they are and what they may be go­ing through.

I en­cour­age us all at times to step out of that com­fort zone and that own lit­tle world cre­at­ed: there is more go­ing on around you, and God wants you to be­come in­volved.

We read in Je­re­mi­ah 1:5 to 8: “Be­fore I formed thee in the bel­ly I knew thee; and be­fore thou camest forth out of the womb I sanc­ti­fied thee, and I or­dained thee a prophet un­to the na­tions. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Be­hold, I can­not speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said un­to me, “Say not, ‘I am a child,’ for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and what­so­ev­er I com­mand thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to de­liv­er thee, saith the Lord.”

Like Je­re­mi­ah, there is a god­ly pur­pose at­tached to your life, peo­ple whose lives God wants you to touch. Where you are present­ly, at that job that you may not be too en­thused or ex­cit­ed about, while you see it as just an­oth­er job, God may have you there for a spe­cif­ic pur­pose; find out what it is and ful­fil that pur­pose.

In our twin is­land, there are many liv­ing among us who are hurt­ing and are in pain due to var­i­ous rea­sons; they need some light in their lives.

A voice of com­pas­sion, em­pa­thy, care, and con­cern, God’s eyes are up­on you be­cause of where you are po­si­tioned.

John wrote, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his broth­er have need, and shut­teth up his bow­els of com­pas­sion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17).

One of the ways we demon­strate the love of God is through our pos­i­tive ac­tions to­wards oth­ers.

I con­clude, let us draw from the life of Je­sus Christ; He is the best ex­am­ple, the com­pas­sion­ate, lov­ing, and car­ing na­ture of the Son of God.

May God rich­ly bless you as you walk in His foot­steps.