Thousands and thousands see the heart as the seat of emotions, but the womb love, the non-passive love a mother has for a child, was what moved JESUS to heal, feed, teach, and raise the dead.
The Shepherd’s love was not passive; it moved HIM to work. For the harassed, the shepherd is harassed. For the helpless, HE became as one.
Compassion can be likened to the fierceness of the shepherd’s burden, without which the shepherd can’t take good care of his Master’s sheep.
However, just like
John 10:11 says: “ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Dear Shepherd, the Master Shepherd will demand that Life; it’ll cost you the fishing net to feed HIS sheep, just as it cost HIM HIS life to save the sinner.
The womb-love seeks
The womb-love feels
The womb-love protects
The womb-love heals
The mother-side of JESUS is the compassion of the shepherd.
HE goes out to seek, HE doesn’t wait to be sought.
HE doesn’t exploit or fleece.
HE doesn’t abandon.
And to you oh lost sheep,
HE awaits.
HE calls.
HE’s chasing, just to get to you.
Ezekiel 34:11–16 tells how much value the shepherd places on his sheep.
— HE by himself will search for and look after them.
—- HE by himself will rescue them.
From scattered places,
—- HE by himself will pursue them.
—- HE by himself will tend them and have them lie down.
The nature of the good shepherd is: COMPASSION.
❕Compassion is patient
❕Compassion is kind
❕Compassion does not boast
❕Compassion is GOD’S own nature
❕Compassion is new every morning
The shepherd does not measure the value of the sheep by their present condition. He sees beyond the wounds, beyond the wandering, beyond the stains of the journey.
He sees what the sheep means to the Master.
This is why compassion never gives up too quickly. It continues to believe, continues to pray, continues to seek, and continues to hope.
The compassion of the shepherd is not merely expressed in grand gestures; it is often seen in quiet faithfulness. It is found in the prayer offered when no one is watching.
It is found in the burden carried for a soul that may never know the tears shed on its behalf. It is found in the willingness to stay when others have left and to keep loving when appreciation is absent.
The Good Shepherd left the ninety-nine in search of the one. To many, that may seem unreasonable, but compassion does not calculate as men calculate.
Compassion values what Heaven values. The one wandering sheep is not an inconvenience; it is a treasure worth pursuing.
This is the heart that the LORD desires to reproduce in HIS under-shepherds. A heart that does not merely count sheep but cares for them.
A heart that does not seek position but embraces responsibility. A heart that is willing to spend and be spent for the sake of those entrusted to its care.
For every true shepherd must eventually learn that feeding sheep is more than teaching messages. It is carrying burdens. It is standing in the gap. It is weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice, strengthening the weak, restoring the fallen, and pointing every soul continually to Christ.
The Harvest of GOD is not gathered by gifted men alone; it is gathered by compassionate men. Men whose hearts have been touched by the heart of the Chief Shepherd. Men who have learned to see people not as projects, but as souls purchased by the blood of JESUS.
And perhaps this is the greatest evidence of genuine shepherding: not eloquence, not influence, not numbers, but compassion. The kind that keeps searching, keeps serving, keeps sacrificing, and keeps loving.
“Oh that we may have compassion as the good shepherd, that as HE is, so we are.
”And then:“FEED HIS SHEEP.”
