Day 13 of 21 Day Prayer Challenge

 
Day 13: EMPATHY
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Compassion and empathy are very closely related. Empathy is the ability to share in another’s emotions and feelings. When you are empathetic, you feel the same feelings of another, even if you have not gone through the same circumstance yourself. You feel their pain so much that it moves you to compassion.
 
Jesus demonstrated empathy throughout His ministry on earth. Jesus “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:35-36). Jesus’ greatest empathy was for their spiritual weariness, a condition He came to cure.
 
When we “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), we show empathy towards others like Jesus showed to us. Empathy tears down walls between people.  Empathy shows the love of Christ to another in their time of need. As we do so, we can be moved to care for them, just as Christ cares for us.
 
Job 2:11,13
“Realizing that Job had been overcome by calamity and his grief was too great for words, his friends thoughtfully kept him company several days without engaging in conversation. Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.”
 
Philippians 2:2-4
“Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
 
1 Corinthians 12:25-26
“So that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
 
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, please open my eyes to see when others are hurting. Help me to see their pain and respond with care. Allow me to be a demonstration of your love today. Amen.