Christian Living
The Compassionate Father
Hi, I’m in the Bronx New York area and Hurricane Sandy devastated the New York City area. My building that I maintain in Manhattan on the Bowery is in the dark. The generator we have in our building has a few things lit up. I must try to get to work tomorrow. Pray for us.
Our Father
In my last article I shared how the Holy Spirit led me to teach about God as Our Heavenly Father. I used Isaiah and David as Old Testament examples who gain revelation that God is their Heavenly Father.
Teachers Note: I want to say that when God led me to write about this topic, I really did not know how to start this teaching. All I knew was that I was to start teaching it from Psalm 103:13. I started with Isaiah 63:16 NKJV, and then went on to Psalm 103:13. After this the anointing to preach fell on me and I finished the article on preaching mode.
As a Father Pities His Children
Since my last article God granted me more insight as to why I needed to start in Psalm 103:13 NKJV. So I’m going to further break it down on teaching mode.
Compassion- means to have pity, a feeling of distress through the ills of others (in the Greek-Oikteio); This word Oikteio-in the Greek is a verb and is used to describe God’s Compassion in Romans 9:15 NKJV.
Another Greek word for Compassion is-SPLANCHNIZOMAI which is used in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:20; which I shared in my last article.
Why the Greek?
The reason I share the Greek definitions is to clarify things so we won’t fall into error about the practical application of COMPASSION and God demonstrating it to us. Most scholars struggle with definitions and fail to see to the proper application it has for us to experience God’s Word in our personal lives.
The fact that I was inspired to write about “As a Father pities His Children” in my last article as a sub-heading and supernaturally connect it to the Prodigal son story. It was an amazing thing after I reread the article then looked at Vine’s Dictionary, I found that it parallels and confirms God’s Compassion on David and the Prodigal Son.
Why do we need to know this information?
When we read any Bible story we must see the parallel it has then apply what we learned. David went thru heavenly and hellish experiences on the earth in his personal life and was later inspired to write Psalm 103 to describe God’s benefits and then reveal God as Father who’s LOVING and COMPASSIONATE. Now let’s get deeper into what David said in Psalm 103 and understand David’s description of God as a Compassionate Father.
David’s Description
I’m going to focus on David explaining God as a Compassionate Father. I’m going to skip the BENEFITS part Psalm 103:1-5; and speak and teach about that later on. But we must get into the main topic of God being a COMPASSIONATE FATHER in Psalm 103:6-18 NKJV.
6. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
7. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.
10. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11. For as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13. As a FATHER pities HIS children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.
14. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
15. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children,
18. To such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.
The Break-down
These verses from 6-18, are 12 reasons why God is Our Heavenly Father whose full of Compassion.
1. We can be experiencing oppression from all angles at home, at work with circumstances and situations that bog us down with stress and anxiety and OUR FATHER comes thru for us by executing righteousness and justice to deliver us from the oppression.
2. He will make His way known to us, and then He will demonstrate His acts to those around us when they witness His Mighty Hand at work in our lives. People will scratch their heads in amazement to the blessings we will experience. They will say how in the world did he or she…
3. We need to understand the MERCY and GRACE of God that over-rides His anger toward us. The only way to describe this part of God’s Character is to give you a clear example with my Daughter and me. My daughter has dark blond hair, blue eyes, she stops traffic literally and everyone complements me about her beauty and intelligence. At home she may get out of control. I get frustrated, displeased with her actions but she’s a baby who is growing. She says she’s sorry and gives me a look of remorse I can’t be angry at her I just hug her and we go on as if nothing ever happened. This is how God taught me—that this is how HE’S merciful and gracious to me and HE doesn’t hold on to His anger against me. (I hope you got the point!)
4. God will not continue to strive or contend with us when we miss it time and time again until we grow out of the evil habit of displeasing Him. Because HE doesn’t remain angry or hold a grudge against us as we do to others who displeases us.
5. Why? Because HE has not dealt with us according to our sins, or punished us according to our iniquities. We need to catch a revelation of this principle of God’s dealings with us. We think every trouble we encounter is because all the sins we committed. You see, temptation is design to mature us. The devil tempts us (Luke 4:1-14 NKJV). James taught us that we are tempted also when we allow ourselves to imagine evil and allow the lusts we think about to take us to commit the act of sin (James 1:12-15 NKJV). Trials are design to build godly character in us (James 1:2-4 NKJV). We will always experience trials and temptations our responsibility is to identify them and act accordingly to produce the GOD desired results of victory.
6. God’s mercy is higher than what we define and exercise toward others. We must grow to understand His mercy that’s high above the earthly application of it. It’s HEAVENLY MERCY.
We can only understand His mercy once we really come to revelation of how God demonstrated His MERCY toward David after—David committed Adultery and Murder. God was MERCIFUL enough to leave David alone for about a year and a half after these sins. Then God sent the Prophet Nathan to bring David the news of his sins. After which David repented (Psalm 51). God told Nathan to tell David that He’s forgiven but will encounter the death of the baby and trouble out of his home. And David did (See 2 Samuel 12-18).
7. Finally, we come to the point of why God PITIES David and us as well!
A) He knows our frame (What we are built of)
B) He remembers we are dust (We have a freshly nature that wants to rule us)
C) Were like a flower here for a few days on the earth then were gone
8. Therefore, HIS MERCY toward us believers is EVERLASTING to EVERLASTING.
Making Sense of It
If we read this Psalm over and over we will come to understand God’s MERCY, COMPASSION, and why He’s our Heavenly FATHER. Would you kill you’re beautiful child that you created? Would you punish them to death by abusing them because they disobeyed a simple house rule or because they spilled the glass of milk or juice? Would you neglect your child by not buying them the essentials to survive and gifts to reward them? I know it may be hard to make the connection but the only way to see God as FATHER is to look at yourself as a Good Parent to your children. As a FATHER PITIES HIS CHILDREN! So the LORD PITIES THOSES THAT FEAR HIM! As we develop our fear (Respect, Honor, Reverence and Obedience) toward God by serving Him—as we make mistakes HE WILL HAVE PITIY ON US UNTIL WE GET RIGHT!
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