God of compassion

“… But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in faithful love, …” Nehemiah 9:17

“…You did not abandon them …because of Your great compassion. " 9:19

“… In Your abundant compassionYou gave them deliverers, …” 9:27

“… You heard from heaven and rescued them many times in Your compassion.” 9:28

“…However, in Your abundant compassion You did not destroy them or abandon them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.” 9:31 　

Are you seeing a resounding theme here?! In this one chapter in Nehemiah the word compassion is applied 6 times to God. I encourage you to read the whole chapter on your own to get a fuller picture. I think that you will be overwhelmed, as I was, by this glimpse of God Almighty. Isn’t it wonderful that our God is compassionate! Imagine if the God who created this world were cruel or heartless, unforgiving or merciless. How horrible it would be to live in such a world with such a King, but no! our God is not like that!! In fact He takes great pains in His word to tell us of His graciousness, faithful love, and abundant compassion. Stop for a minute and read those passages again taking time to really think about what they mean.
I think there is a very real reason why God tells us of His compassion so many times in the scriptures. I think He repeats this truth so frequently because somehow it is hard for us to believe. Of course we would never say that we do not believe any part of the Bible and we may even think that we do believe, but the true test is our lives. Do we live as if we serve a God of compassion? Let us take a look at ourselves…

Are we afraid of God? I do not mean do we fear God in the sense of reverence, respect, and awe, all that is rightly due Him. No, but do we shrink from God? Do we run from His presence as one might from an unkind father? Are we afraid to approach His presence in prayer? God does not want that kind of fear from us! (Revelation 1:17) If we are afraid of the Lord our relationship with Him will not grow. After all no one seeks out someone they are afraid of. Our heavenly Father tells us of His compassion so that we will be drawn to Him. He wants us to bring everything to Him and to trust Him with our every need. How different would our walk with Him be if we truly internalized the truth that He is compassionate?
　
Do we fear God will not forgive us? Do we wrestle with guilt even after we have confessed our sins to Him? Do we think God is like the people in our lives who keep a record of our sin, harbor bitterness against us, and when we fail them one to many times give up on us? How tragic to believe these things about our God when He tells us so many times that He is a forgiving God and He is compassionate!

Are we afraid of the future? Do we fear God’s plan for our lives may involve something that is too hard for us? Are we too fearful to surrender the road that stretches before us because we are just sure that He will send us exactly where we most dread going? Oh we need to often remind ourselves of God’s compassion. How can we tremble at the future when we know a God of compassion holds it in His hands?!