Walking With Jesus (Unity)Sample

Be empathetic

Romans 12:15

A writer named Jerry Bridges said, "Our worst day is never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. Your best day is never so good that you don't need God's grace." Sharing God's grace is often more difficult than receiving God's grace. We tend to think of who is worthy and unworthy to receive our kindness.

It is easier for us to rejoice with those who rejoice. However, it is very difficult to cry with those crying. We tend to judge those crying because of their own wrong choices. We might say, "Just let them understand the consequence" – even though we only do it in our minds. We think that those who make the wrong decisions are not worthy of our pity.

Who grieves the most when we fall to sin? Sometimes, we don't care when we have fallen into sin, even though that sin has gripped us.

Our Father is very sad. What will He do then? Is He putting more pressure on us because of our mistakes? Does He make fun of our ignorance? I don't think so. He will give us a chance to try and keep trying.

That is how we should imitate Him. We have fallen, but the Lord allows us to rise again and continue our journey. We might meet people who fall on that journey. They are just like us, who don't expect those things to happen to them. We have a responsibility to give them a chance. They also have the right to get up. Our experiences of getting up can inspire them that the fall and the downturn are not the ends of everything.

Reflection:

1. What is our attitude towards our failures and the failures of others?

2. Have we built our empathy like Christ with His mercy?

Practice: Be empathetic! We can accomplish many things when we try to feel them.