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Compassion
The news headlines we read are often full of tragedy, poverty and suffering. We see news reports of children starving in refugee camps, and hear about the 1.7 billion people who live on less than £1 a day and go to bed hungry every night. And we don’t always respond to them. Sometimes we become desensitised, we’re so used to hearing about it that we switch off. Other times we think that there’s nothing we can do to help. We can see their need as so huge and overwhelming that we couldn’t even start to make a difference. The Bible tells us about a time when Peter and John were heading to the temple and they saw someone in need. This person had been crippled from birth and begged outside of the temple gates every day. ‘Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand…lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength’ (Acts 3:6-7 NKJV). Peter could have decided to keep walking. He didn’t have any money to give the man. But he chose to stop and as a result the crippled man who’d sat begging for most of his life rose up and walked into a new life. Through God’s power people can be healed, freed and lives can be transformed. But often we have to see the need and act with compassion. We have to choose, like Peter, to stop even when we think we’ve got nothing to offer. When we see someone’s need and reach out our hand to meet it, God releases His power.
What Now?
Next time you see someone in need, stop and think what you could do to help them out, however big or small – you never know what could make a difference in their life.
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