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say no to renegade...
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If we are to help wisely, we want to know the heart and the significant influences on the heart.
Among those many influences are two representatives in particular: other people and our physical bodies.
Our hearts are always up to...
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We love, fret, plan, rest, avoid, worship, hide...
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Life always comes at us with hard things and good things.
If we are to know and help each other, we will reside close to where someone’s world and heart meet.
The sheer number of influences on the heart is impossible to fully know. Our goal is to identify those influences that have been most important.
People Heal, People Harm
People have the most obvious impact on our lives.
Our relationships bless, and they curse.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! (vv. 1–2)
God is active in the midst of hard relationships, victimization, and oppression. The Israelites’ exodus from Egypt began because God was responding to the cries of slaves, even though they were not even crying out to him. Jesus himself, our Great High Priest, entered into this world of being misunderstood and violated as he was “made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest” who acts on behalf of the hurt and mistreated (Heb. 2:17).
Yet while God is active, so is Satan.
Satan uses such difficulties to raise questions about God’s care and compassion. Does God really care? Would a good father let ...
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We can trust in God’s power and justice and remain thankful.
We can become embittered and take matters into our own hands.
We can remain confiden...
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love because we have our eyes fix...
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We can believe that God is distant and indiffer...
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walk with care toward another person’s heart.
Our Bodies Are Strong, Our Bodies Are Weak
“How is your health?”
“Could you pray for healing?”
Though our outer self [our body] is wasting away, our inner self [our heart or our soul] is being renewed day by day. (2 Cor. 4:16)
Here is a general rule: the more you understand a person’s physical weaknesses, the more patient you will be with that person.
The circumstances of life do not have the power to turn us away from Jesus or to make us love him more—those are the jurisdiction of the heart. But they can make life easier or more miserable,
and they can be difficult tests that reveal surprising things about what was once quiet in our hearts.
Endless influences shape our lives: people, bodies and brains, education, climate, local culture, political leaders, race, and wars. What has been the prominent influence on your life? How has it affected your heart?
How has knowing the particulars about someone’s physical weaknesses contributed to your patience and love for that person?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. (vv. 1–4)
all of life is spiritual, in that Christ is our comfort, our forgiveness, our honor, our justice, our power, our joy, and our hope. Our very structure makes the knowledge of Jesus and our trust in him the center of the human heart, and only when we rest in Jesus can we truly flourish as his people.
draw out more and more applications that guide us in wise, helpful conversations.
Be personal and pray—those are two skills we ...
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God is personal, so we are personal with him and each other.
The life of Jesus on earth is evidence of God’s personal fellowship with us.
Every mention of his compassion and mercy is evidence that he is the personal God.
his conversation with the Samaritan woman again (John 4:1–42). He pursued this outcast woman, engaged in the longest recorded conversation in the New Testament, and revealed himself to her as the Chr...
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Our help, in response, is personal. We are a composite of servant and friend who, as servant, places a priority on the interests of others, and, as friend, enters in, enjoys the person, bears...
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“I am so happy for you.” “Let’s celebrate together.” “What a great gift. This is just wonderful.”
We also enjoy them and the good things that come out of their hearts:
“Your openness about your life has been such a lesson t...
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“Thank you so much for your concern for me. It reminds me th...
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“I so appreciate seeing the patience and kindness you give...
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We have compassion as we share in their burdens and sufferings: “I’m so sorry.” “This seems so hard. Could you tell me a little more?” “You are on my heart.” We “rejoice with those who rejoice, [and] weep with those who weep”...
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What guides our responses is both the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:127) and humility.
The Golden Rule asks, “What have other people said to me that was helpful and encouraging?” Humility asks, “What could help and encourage you?”
it is almost always unhelpful to give advice to someone who is troubled unless the troubled one asks.
Advice is
what we would do in another’s situation, even though we might never have been in that situation. It typically sounds teacher-like, and it bypasses compassion. It is rarely personal....
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