God’s Compassion

Hosea 11:1-12, Luke 15:11-32

God is grieved. His children have left his perfect love for death. I love to see this glimpse of God because it shows the depth of his grace. His children have betrayed him and yet out of his own character his “heart recoils within; my compassion grows warm and tender” it is not even repentance that draws him near to us! It is his own compassion within him that compels him to pursue an unfaithful people. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus shares a similar story of a lost son who betrays his father. The son comes to repent, but the father before even hearing the son’s apology celebrates and embraces him. 

Church, do we understand this? It is the grace of God that we are saved. It is the compassion the Father feels for his lost children and the sending of Jesus who endured his wrath so we may experience reconciliation to the one we have betrayed. It is because of who God is and his actions out of his character that we are pursued and redeemed, though we have only betrayed and brought death upon ourselves. 

How do we respond to this kind of love and compassion? We surrender and we worship. Everytime we grasp for control, lean on our own strength and folly, we walk into death. Jesus offers life to those who surrender, who walk into the throne room saying, “God, I am incapable of saving myself, may I cling to the salvation offered by your Son’s blood?” It is the letting go of our own control and surrendering our lives to Christ that we may get to experience life filled with God’s grace and compassion. Surrendering means, I will choose to believe in moments I do not understand. I will choose to praise your will when it is suffering. I will choose to remember your goodness in the midst of a broken world. Surrendering means letting go of our understanding, clinging to the cross and trusting that God’s word is true and his promises will be fulfilled. 

Where do you need to surrender? What lies are you believing that keep you from living from God’s grace and compassion?