Compassion

"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity." Joel 2:13

Hosea and Joel are both accounts of God's prodigal 'children.' Hosea is told from a more allegorical perspective, and Joel is more straightforward. Honestly, after reading Hosea, Joel is very refreshing in that it is a mere 3 chapters compared to 12 or so. But what is amazing to me in both of these books is that in the middle of God's frustration with His children, there are these significant, dazzling verses about how gracious, kind, compassionate, and abounding in love our God is. Take for instance the verse above...look at all of the ways God is described as responding to His children when He is even frustrated with them! Amazing! Further...what amazes me more is that He just wants our hearts. Not our sacrifices (like the torn clothing, etc.), but our hearts. It's so simple that it's hard for us to accept this kind of grace!

The verse that just sparkled in Hosea is:
"My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephriam. For I am God, and not man--the Holy One among you..." Hosea 11:8b-9

During this time that we exclaim Emmanuel, "God with Us," it is really powerful to note how God declares His presence among us. He IS the Holy One among us. Also, look at how God just again notes how WE extract compassion from His heart. Those are His words.

The encouragement to me here is that even though I frustrate God (moment by moment, I'm sure!), I cause compassion to come flowing forth from His heart. He loves ME and YOU that much, and that's why He is the "Holy One among us." That's why He sent Jesus to die and rise and give us live forever. I'm just thankful that God's heart is this way, even when I am His frustrating and prodigal child. That's a SURPRISE...the GOOD NEWS.