February 13, 2024

One of the prayers I regularly pray in my daily walks with God is that He will help me to see as He sees. What I’ve learned is that God views people differently than I do. I see people through the lens of my own bias, perspective, and selfishness. When I see people who are getting what they deserve, God sees an opportunity for grace. When I see people who are just going to suck the life out of me, God sees an opportunity to pour life into them. When I see people who are going to cost me time, energy, and effort, God’s sees an opportunity to be a blessing. That’s why God has compassion, while I may have indifference or even contempt.
How we perceive people will determine how we feel toward them. And those feelings will drive how we act toward them. If we see them as a bother, we feel annoyed and try to avoid them. If we see them as people who are getting what they deserve, we will pass right by them in our self-righteous arrogance. But seeing them as Jesus did causes us to CARE. And caring moves us to want to do something to help.
The Samaritan in the story saw the man beside the road differently than the priest or the Levite. He didn’t see the man as a “despised Jew,” as many of his fellow Samaritans would have. He didn’t see the man as someone who was getting what he deserved or someone whose troubles were going to ruin his day. He saw him as Jesus would have. As someone who was hurting who needed his help. A broken soul that needed mending. An opportunity to be the love of God in human form. And he felt COMPASSION for the man.
What a great prayer for us this week. “Lord, help us see as you see. Let the scales of our own biases and busyness fall away so that we might view those around us through your eyes. Let their needs touch our hearts. Let their cries for help reach our ears. Let us see them as the opportunity to pass along a little of the blessing that you have so richly poured out upon us. And let our hearts overflow with compassion. Amen.” That’s God’s Word for you today.