God in Your Compassion (or Lack Thereof!)

"I am free to learn and to grow from a position of love, not obligation."

What’s your name, how are you connected with P2C-Students, and what’s a fun fact about you? 

My name is Miriam! I am a first-year P2C intern serving at Western University and on the Creative Communications team as a social media content creator. In university, I studied Global Development.

What's an area of your life where you've seen God at work recently? 

God has been helping me to love others even when I don’t feel compassionate.

How did you recognize the Holy Spirit in this situation? 

I’m not very good at loving people. By nature, I’m a pretty selfish person and can often find myself consumed by my own needs or wants versus the needs of others. 

Last week, the Holy Spirit highlighted this pattern in my relationships with others. I noticed that people were confiding in me with things they were really struggling with and rather than having compassion for them, I felt overwhelmed and numb. I could tell I wasn’t being effective in loving others because I didn’t care deeply about what was happening in their lives.

When I try to convict myself, it’s often full of shame. There was a rebuke in this realization but it was full of hope. This is how God convicts us. I felt the gentle invitation to turn to him. I felt a sense of relief that I could admit that I was struggling and needed help. This gave me life. The Holy Spirit nurtures life in our souls through making us effective agents of God’s love. 

What difference does Jesus make to this part of life? 

As a believer in Jesus, my identity rests secure. Like the Apostle Paul, I can even say that out of all of us, I am the worst of sinners and still, my identity is secure. God loves me so much. Therefore, I am free.

Because of this freedom, I can be honest with myself and others about where I really am rather than where I want to be. I am free to learn and to grow from a position of love, not obligation.

How did you respond to God? 

I prayed! I asked God to help me to have compassion for others. I also confided in close friends. I told them about what I was struggling with and asked them to have grace for me as I grew. 

How can we pray for you? 

I’d love for you to pray for me in this area! Pray that I would continue to be an agent out of God’s love because of the freedom I have in Jesus rather than a sense of obligation. 

Bonus: Scripture to Ponder

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12