People are hurting!  Take a moment tomorrow to look around you.  Often times people we see and interact with every day have struggles that are unspoken.  Consider the hurting people throughout the Bible: Paul was hurting because of physical affliction and opposition from false teachers, Moses because of the difficulties of leading people, David because of the trauma caused by his dysfunctional family, Peter often with the guilt of saying too much, too soon or too often,  and most of all Jesus carrying the weight of His mission as the incarnate God and ultimately the weight of the sins of mankind and the rejection of the Father.

Most people are struggling with something; it may be a relationship, a rejection or guilt of some kind, maybe a financial hardship, an unexpected trauma in their life or even a change in life they expected but  are struggling to work through.  Often, people are truly hurting, and as believers, we often walk right past them and fail to seize the opportunity to minister a word of grace.  In 1 John 3:16, the Apostle John says we ought to be willing to lay down our lives for our fellow believer, and yet at times we struggle just to listen and give a kind word.  Jesus constantly cared for the hurting.  Consider almost every miracle He did. He was constantly ministering to the hurting: a woman with an issue of blood, a Roman soldier who had a sick servant, Peter’s Mother-in-law, the young girl who had died, Lazarus and especially his sisters, the man born blind, the lepers, and the list could go on.  Jesus was constantly helping and serving the hurting.

Two challenges: First, attempt to guard against being so self-absorbed that we fail to see the pain others are experiencing. Look past your own hurts and see where you can serve or help someone else.  Often, we are so focused on our hurts that we fail to see the overwhelming pain others may be enduring.  At other times, we look around at others and imagine that they have no burdens they are carrying and envy their position or their “easy life”.  Stop and consider the difficulties they may be working through that they have chosen not to share.  Second, take a moment to empathize with someone who is hurting!  Actually consider the heaviness of the burden they are carrying.

May God give us grace to have compassion on the hurting, just as Jesus did constantly throughout His earthly ministry!  If we are truly being transformed by Jesus, it should be visible in our interactions with one another.  As the Apostle John states so clearly, Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. 1 John 3:18(CSB)  You can say you love someone, but the truth is in the action!  What do your actions say about your love for those who are hurting?