He stifled His Compassion

 God is love. He has great compassion and mercy on everyone. However, when He sees us stifling our compassion toward others, it makes Him very angry. In fact, He will not forgive that sin without punishing us for it first. I am sure we have all had this temptation when someone wronged us or we were tempted to take advantage of someone. We knew we should stop and forgive them, but we stifled that compassion, which the Holy Spirit brought up in our heart, and we treated them badly anyway. That is what Edom did to its neighbors, who were their relatives. (Amos 1:11) God was watching them when they pursued their brothers with the sword, stifling their compassion. He saw how their anger overcame them continually, and they maintained their fury forever. That is exactly the opposite of what we ought to do today.

When we get angry with anyone, we need to be quick to forgive. (Ephesians 4:31-32) If we fail to forgive, our anger turns into resentment, and that leads to bitterness that affects our entire personality. It also can lead us to physically harm another person, which is always wrong. We must never stifle compassion. We must cultivate compassion. After all, Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. That is why we must put away the anger and not hold grudges against others. It doesn't hurt them, like we think it does. It hurts us, all the down to our soul. It affects our relationships with everyone in our life. I pray we will all learn this lesson from the Lord, because make no mistake, if we fail in this area, God's punishment is sure, just like He said to Edom.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Amos 2-4.