If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal
1 Corinthians 13:1
If we don’t have love and we try to minister to people we are annoying as someone clanging cymbals over and over again. It’s a hard truth; but love is a fruit of the Spirit. Doesn’t it come automatically? Nope. We do things to mess it up. I am reading Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg. In it, I’m reading about compassion blockers. I’ve talked about some of them here in this blog recently!
One of them they mention is being over busy. You have something going for each night of the week and even your weekend is scheduled out to the point you work on Sunday. Rest is important. Alone time with the Creator is important. If you are too busy and tired you will miss opportunities to minister because you are conducting yourself at the world’s pace. If you want to be kingdom effective you have to operate slower.
Sometimes compassion is something that is foreign to a person because of the environment they grew up in. If that’s the case, get into a support group or to a Christian counselor. Unresolved issues don’t extinguish themselves; you have to put them out.
Sometimes you are being too caring. You are meeting the needs of too many people and yours aren’t being met. You don’t schedule time for rest and for the things you need.
A lack of financial resources is sometimes the key. You are Old Testament tithing so you don’t have resources to do New Testament acts of kindness. Study on what scripture says about New Testament giving. It may feel strange at first, but that’s what freedom is. The old law is completely shattered. We live under a new covenant.
If your relationship with God isn’t growing in intensity, you may be the reason for a lack of compassion. The closer you get to God, the more you realize your own unworthiness for the grace extended to you. When you have received abundant grace, you have more compassion.
My prayer for you is that you would grow in love and compassion and also that you would make the necessary changes in your life to help foster an environment where they can grow.
Following Jesus 