"JESUS WEPT." The Importance of Showing Compassion to Others

This episode is about the story of Jesus weeping, how it's okay to cry, and the importance of showing compassion to others. I pair this with prayer, scripture, and 3 takeaways.

First I want to say a quick prayer... Lord, I pray that you lift up every single person listening to this right now. Please open up our eyes to see the truth of your words and open up our hearts and our mind to you Lord. I pray that you help us to see the truth, know the truth, discern the truth, and live by the truth, and whatever it is that we're supposed to get out of this Lord, I pray that we receive it. Thank you so much for every single thing that you've done Lord. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, amen.

Alright, so first I just wanted to go into john chapter 11 and I'm going to start at verse 32 and it says:

When mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

This chapter here, these are just a few verses of this chapter, but throughout the chapter, it was about Lazarus, how he was sick, and Mary and Martha, (Lazarus's sisters) sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, and he said that it wouldn't end in death but Lazarus ended up dying. These verses here are right before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. But verse 35, "Jesus Wept." That's such a powerful verse. It's just two words and it's so powerful because it shows that 1. he was human, and 2. that he had compassion for Mary and Martha and the others that were weeping because Lazarus was dead. Jesus knew all along that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead because he said at the beginning of Chapter 11 that the sickness wouldn't end in death, but he had that compassion for them when he saw them weeping. And when he saw Lazarus lying there dead, he wept.

There are a few things that I really want to point out here with this episode because I know there's a stigma about crying for both men and women and sometimes we don't even realize it. A lot of times people think that women don't have this stigma at all because I know with men they kind of grew up to be tougher, so they are taught not to cry and all of that, but also women too. I know for me growing up I had a lot of brothers and sisters but I spent more time with my brothers because my sisters were older and they really just don't want to have anything to do with me. My brother that's 3 years older than me was like my best friend. So I grew up playing football and basketball with my brothers and just spending time with them. Any time I started crying or getting emotional I just was taught to suck it up. "Put some dirt in it, it's going to be okay."

So growing up, once I was a teenager I really just developed this hard shell and I did not want to show my emotions at all. I almost seemed emotionless or a bully to people that didn't know me because I really didn't want to show my emotions. I felt like crying was a sign of weakness and I didn't ever want to show any type of weakness. It was like that even through my early twenties.

Sorry to interrupt this blog, but I just wanted to remind you if you didn't already know or didn't already purchase, that "Christ Transforms Me." My 90-day journal for the transformation of the heart, mind, and spirit of the Christian woman is available for purchase on Amazon. For everyone that has purchased, thank you so much. I'm so beyond grateful for you guys and I really hope that this journal helps you guys and you experience transformation through it. But if you want to purchase the journal or learn more about it, go to www.faithfuelsmyfire.com/journal.

Actually, just in the past couple of years with me really building a relationship with Christ, my heart has just changed so much and it's become impossible for me not to get emotional and cry and have compassion for others because God has changed my heart and Christ has changed my heart so much. At first throughout these couple of years with me having compassion, opening my heart, getting emotional, and all of that, I would get angry at myself. Like, "I don't know why I'm like this," "I'm being a baby," "I'm not normally like this," "this is not who I am." But in these verses here, this verse that says "Jesus wept," shows that it's okay to cry and to have compassion.

All throughout the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John we see that Jesus has compassion for others and he loves and serves others. We Christians, as believers of Jesus Christ, want to live more like him and be more like him, and with that, once we have that relationship with him, he will change our hearts and we will have that compassion, and it's okay to get emotional. It's okay to cry. It's okay to have those feelings. I know someone listening to this right now may have grown up the same way that I did. Where you just never wanted to show your emotions or ever let anyone see you cry or have any type of sign of weakness, and maybe your heart's been changed by Jesus or maybe you're still feeling that way that you just don't want to show your emotions, and I just want you to know that it's okay to cry. It's okay to have those emotions, having compassion for others is amazing, that's what Jesus has for us, and we need to have that compassion for others.

There are a few other verses that I want to put here:

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." -Ephesians 4:32

"Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble." -1 Peter 3:8

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." -Lamentations 3:22

So these verses here show to have compassion for others, be sympathetic, and that the Lord has compassion on us. Also, when we see other people going through tough times or maybe something amazing happens, It's okay to cry, show those emotions, and have that compassion and it doesn't matter who sees you or who notices those emotions. The most important thing is having a relationship with Christ and when you have that, your heart will be changed and it will be impossible to not show emotions. Just like it is for me, now I cry over things that I never thought I would ever cry over. A lot of people have seen me cry that I never thought would ever see me cry. But with my heart being changed and with having that compassion, I know that it's okay to show those emotions and have that compassion for others and that just shows your love for them, that you want the best for them, that Jesus has changed your heart, and that's amazing.

Here are 3 takeaways that I want to give you guys:

I want you to write these down, put them in the notes on your phone, however you want to do it. but here are the three things that I want you guys to get from this and to remember.

1. It's okay to cry

- Simple as that.

- Get that out of your head thinking that crying equals weakness, you don't ever want to show your emotions to other people, or anything like that.

- Jesus has changed your heart, or he is in the process of changing it if you're reading this blog right now, and it's okay to cry, it's okay to let it out. It's okay to show your emotions.

- Jesus wept and you can too.

2. Love one another

- We have to love others and serve others even people that we don't know or we don't necessarily like we still have to love everyone just like Jesus loves us.

- God loved us so much that he sent his only son to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins.

- God loves everyone and Jesus loves everyone, sinners and all because we're all sinners, and he loves us all, every one of us.

3. Show compassion to others

- Just as Jesus has shown compassion to us, we have to show that compassion to others regardless of what we're going through.

- It's important for us to be there for others, be compassionate, and show that compassion to them.

- It could make their day. Us just being sympathetic and being compassionate for them could make their whole year.

- They may have never had anyone show compassion in their life and just by us doing that could make their whole day and it could help them get closer to Christ because we're showing the compassion that Jesus shows us.

- It could open up a conversation of us letting them know about the compassion that Jesus shows others, that Jesus has changed our heart, and it could lead to that person getting saved or knowing about Jesus if they've never heard about him.

So I hope this episode helped you guys to know that it's okay to cry, that Jesus wept, and that it's important for us to have compassion and love for others, just like Jesus has compassion and love for us.

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, spiritual growth, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.

For weekly Bible Studies, tune in every week to my podcast. Every week I go over a new chapter/s of the Book of Acts.

You can also follow me on Instagram (_lorenacamille_) I'll be posting frequently and doing daily stories.

For past Bible Studies on the books of Jeremiah & John, join our Facebook Community