Being Grieved for Others

 Most of the time when we speak of being grieved, we are talking about being sad because we lost a loved one or something very dear to us. Yes, we do grieve and we should grieve at those times. However, that is not the only time we should grieve. Our hearts should be touched and we should grieve when we see other people who are abused and mistreated in some way. If we are not grieved by those things, we have a heart problem.

The Bible tells us that Jonathan was grieved for David because his father king Saul had treated him shamefully. (I Samuel 20:34) In fact, after Jonathan heard what his father said about David, he was very angry. He was so angry he could not eat. His anger came from being grieved for David. Jonathan grieved so much for David that he felt it physically and emotionally. Let's think about this for a moment.

If we have soft hearts  that are led by the Spirit of God, we will grieve when we see another person or another group of people mistreated. We have all been mistreated at one time or another, so we know how it feels, and we have seen the consequences. Therefore, we should have "empathy" for others. That means we should feel what they feel. If we don't empathize with them, we have hard hearts that are out of touch with the Lord.

However, we need to have "sympathy" for them, too. We need to go beyond feeling with them to caring for them, so that we help them in any way we can. That is what Jonathan did for David, even though it made his father angry with him. We should be willing to "suffer with" others. That is the meaning of having sympathy. That is what Jesus did for us, when He came and died for our sins. He did what only He could do to help us out of our dire situation.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 21-23.