A Shepherd's Heart For The Suffering

Every week it seems I hear about someone else suffering. Another person facing cancer. Another person the object of gossip. Another marriage strained or ending. Families facing alzheimers. Someone losing a job. People dealing with grief in the death of a parent, spouse, or other loved one. People scraping to make ends meet financially. People having major surgeries. Parents praying for prodigal children. The numerous dealing with other diseases.

It is heart wrenching to watch people you love suffer. Suffering strangles hope and faith from people. Jesus sees. He knows. He cares.

Matthew 9:35-36 (ESV) 
³⁵  And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
³⁶  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus takes the time to notice the heartaches and pains in people's lives. He sees. He sees you today. Many powerful elite never see people. They look right past them to move on with more important matters. Jesus sees people. People have always been the important matters for our Shepherd. Right now, in whatever suffering you are enduring He sees you. When Jesus saw the crowds He perceived their pain and beheld their collective suffering. He does the same with us today. 

Jesus has compassion. He feels our suffering. He sympathizes with the family battling cancer but losing the fight. He feels for the aging and ailing senior adults who fear what their last days will be like. He cares deeply for those gripped and imprisoned by grief. He does not turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to the persecuted saints around the world. He sees and He cares. 

He sees the harassed. That word means troubled. What troubles weigh you down? What troubles extinguish the flickering flame of hope you try to keep burning? He sees and He sympathizes. You may ask why doesn't He intervene? Why doesn't He heal, restore, provide, and protect? He already has. He died on the cross to purchase our redemption. In the sweet bye and bye all of our suffering will end forever. We may have to endure some suffering along the way but in the end He will be triumphant in all our lives if we are His own. For now you may have to endure some troubles. Even in them those troubles can be cast on Him. You do not have to bear the burden of your suffering. Give it to Him and leave it with Him. 

How many are helpless? They can't fix their problems. They are helpless to pull themselves out of the pit of pain they currently are stuck in. The Chief Shepherd Jesus cares. He knows your name. He is aware of your plight. He has not forgotten nor abandoned you though you may feel tossed and turned in the tempestuous seas of life. Life may have hurled you farther into suffering than you ever wanted to go but you are not beyond His reach. You are not beyond His sight. You are not beyond His ear. 

I wish I could relieve suffering. All I can do is point you to the one who can. Even if the suffering does not end in this life I can point you to the One who will permanently end suffering in the eternal life to come for His children. 

I hope you find some measure of comfort in that. I hope that gives a little hope to keep persevering when you would rather just give up. Please remember.  You are not sheep without a shepherd. The Lord is your Shepherd. He sees. He cares. He is with you.