April 22nd, 21

There are needs everywhere. Yet Jesus seems to see through the physical needs and right into the soul. He sees our need for forgiveness, healing from shame, regret, there he has compassion. There he reaches out, there he heals, forgives. He says to the paralytic, be encouraged my child, Your sins are forgiven. The same is true in our lives. Jesus sees through our physical needs right into our souls. He sees our need for forgiveness. He has come to show mercy. In verse 13. He says, "Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy not offer sacrifices, for I have come to call not those who think they are righteous. But those who know they are sinners."  He wants us to think about it. Think about the meaning of this scripture. Because our thoughts automatically go to what must I do in order to carry favor with God? What must I sacrifice? how might I perform in order to be made right with Him? When our thinking goes there, we missed the point. We have to think again. Jesus tells us think again, go and learn the meaning of the Scripture. I want you to show mercy not offer sacrifices, your demonstration of mercy. Your heart for others, is evidence that you understand the heart of God, that He has come to sacrifice himself on our behalf, to heal us. He's not looking for our religious sacrifices. He did what we could not. He brought healing, forgiveness and hope. He came for the unrighteous, not those who think they are righteous, by the things that they do. God wants me to raise my eyes and see what he sees. The blind, the sick, the bleeding, all people needing His compassion and his life. When we see the way God sees when we look with his eyes in his spirit, while the same response wells up within our own hearts, and we have compassion, and we will go out and work in the fields alongside him, will participate with him will be empowered by him. That is what God is up to here. He wants us to see what he sees. And he invites us to join him in the field, working alongside with his power, his strength, his joy. And that's a prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family for my wife, my daughter's my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you may be so

You are loved!