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Episode 19 - Gain Compassion
30 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Pray and See, host Bryan Brookes continues exploring Matthew 9 and the call to pray with God’s heart. Through the story of Amy — a Youth for Christ staff member whose own pain became the pathway to deeper empathy — Bryan reveals how God uses our struggles to grow compassion within us.
You’ll also hear how prayer transforms not only the lives of those we intercede for but our own hearts in the process. Discover what it means to approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, to let Him heal what’s beneath the surface, and to join His mission of love and rescue in the world.
Email pray@coyfc.org with topic suggestions, or to link up with a prayer team!
Pray & See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ. Podcast Link - https://open.spotify.com/show/3yZLOjUt6Hu0XxuwLavLZv
- Central Ohio Youth for Christ: www.coyfc.org
- Gracehaven: www.gracehavenohio.org
- WellSpring Columbus: www.wellspringcolumbus.org
- Equip Skills Center: www.equipskillscenter.com
- Equip Auto: www.equipautosales.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Pray and See Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Pray and See podcast. I'm Brian Brooks, your host. I'm glad to connect with you to share how God moves through prayer in our Youth for Christ ministries and some things I've seen in my own life.
00:00:18
Speaker
If you're just joining us, great to have you. Go back and check out the earlier episodes. Hopefully, it'll motivate you to pray differently, to pay more attention to what God is doing.
00:00:30
Speaker
In John 20, 31, it says, it says These things were written down that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And by believing you may have life in his name.
00:00:42
Speaker
God is offering belonging in his family. He's offering forgiveness through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, the life in his name.
The Power and Purpose of Prayer
00:00:54
Speaker
He's offering eternal life, being with God in heaven and being with his people, but also that same quality of life now getting a taste of that in advance after you come to know jesus and you join his family praying is something that is going to last forever it glorifies god and it's significant in changing the hearts and minds of other people and showing them god's love i found it to be a really exciting privilege and a great reminder that god is real and he is active
00:01:34
Speaker
Let's pray and see what God does. Pray along with me. God, you're more powerful than everything and you want to be near to us at the same time. Thank you. We can have confidence that if we know you, you hear our prayers, you care about us, you know fully what's in our hearts and our minds.
00:01:54
Speaker
God, I pray for my friends right now. You know who they are that don't know you, that you would show yourself to them. They would experience your love and forgiveness through Jesus and can join your family.
00:02:09
Speaker
Thank you that even though you know everything that's in our hearts and minds, you love us anyways. Amen.
00:02:17
Speaker
Well, episode 15, we talked about prayer helps us to see what's really happening, how God is moving, what his plan of rescue is, how he's drawing people to himself.
00:02:29
Speaker
And we've been looking at a series of prayers in the past several episodes that line up with what God cares about. And we've been focusing on this text from Matthew 9, picking up in verse 35.
00:02:43
Speaker
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
00:02:54
Speaker
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And we talked about in a prior episode how to see people the way that God does.
00:03:07
Speaker
we're going to go a little deeper on that theme in today's talk. Here's a story from
Finding Compassion Through Prayer
00:03:14
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our ministry. I heard it last week. It's too good not to share. So a female student shared something with Amy, a staff person on her team, and ah something tragic about this girl's suffering.
00:03:28
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And Amy said, i felt nothing. And she was bothered by that. ah Later, she asked an older woman who's mentoring her,
00:03:40
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Why didn't I feel anything? And ah the mentor said, you know, maybe you should pray and ask God to help you understand some of your pain. And really that's a prayer centered around how to have compassion on other people.
00:03:56
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Well, Amy prayed that. The next day she described getting hit with a strong wave of emotion as she remembered things that had happened to her, as she connected with those experiences,
00:04:10
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God gave her a heart of compassion for this girl. This is also right during the pandemic, COVID-19, and Amy described reading in that anxious time, Psalm 91, every day for a month.
00:04:28
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And that Psalm talks about how to withstand difficulty, how God wants to protect And that was a timely word for her in the midst of the anxiety around the pandemic.
00:04:41
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Neither situation, the anxiety and the worry were of COVID or understanding her own pain were were really fun or enjoyable, but God used both to enable Amy to have a heart of compassion for people.
00:04:59
Speaker
This is the point. God wants us to gain compassion for people. And God might show you like he did with Amy, what is blocking your compassion for people?
00:05:14
Speaker
What's blocking you from feeling in your heart, in your gut, a sympathy, an empathy that is profound for someone that you're right in front of.
00:05:27
Speaker
Maybe it's something in your past. Maybe it's pain and suffering that you're dealing with now or you're going through, but you need to deal with, with God. When God invites us to go to Him with that, to get help in our time of need, it's not
Transformative Nature of Prayer
00:05:43
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judgment.
00:05:43
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It's so God can heal us and show us more of who He is. Listen to this picture in Hebrews 4.
00:05:51
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Picking up in verse 15, for we do not have a high priest. This is talking about Jesus who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. He can relate to us. And it says, ah but one who is in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.
00:06:08
Speaker
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace so we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. My friend James had this picture and his mind of entering the throne room with prayer and said that that image over the past couple of years really helped him connect with what prayer is about.
00:06:35
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He's going into the throne room where the king is seated on the throne, but instead of being afraid, having to jump through hoops and request an appointment,
00:06:45
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James would describe he would walk boldly in and lay a chest of all of his burdens, his fears, his worries, past hurts, everything right at the foot of the throne.
00:06:59
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And that there's something about that, not only a posture, but praying, talking to God about that, where he would experience love and grace from Jesus. That is what we're talking about.
00:07:12
Speaker
One teacher says, God wants to give us away from the world it draws us closer in compassion. of for other people. who meet our neighbor's need with what god has entrusted to us god wants to give us compassion he wants to give us a heart of compassion so we gain that for other people And as that happens, he may activate you, give you ideas of how you can serve and help the people that you're around. Well, instead of only thinking about prayer in a one-sided way where it's just for other people, we're also recognizing prayer is a process of spiritual transformation in us.
00:07:57
Speaker
Because if we're serving and loving and praying for people who are hurting and suffering, who are confused, who don't know the answers to the big questions in life, we may have some of those too.
00:08:13
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We may have some of those doubts. We may be confused. We may be suffering. And reading and knowing that Jesus relates to us and our suffering can free us up to have compassion for other people.
00:08:27
Speaker
The reality is prayer is not a slot machine where you just keep mindlessly pulling the lever, hoping to get the right combination to have something good happen. Instead, it's a way for God to work in our hearts and in the lives of other people.
00:08:44
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God can handle both.
00:08:47
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God wants us to gain compassion for other people.
00:08:54
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So what can we do? Keep talking to God about the people that he's bringing to your mind, about the students that you might be serving in Youth for Christ, about your neighbors, about your family.
00:09:06
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You know, it could be that God is also wanting to work something in your life to show you something in your heart and your mind about yourself to give you ah heart of compassion.
Call to Action and Engagement
00:09:21
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Have you asked God, you know, what is it that you might be trying to show me as I'm praying for this other person? Amy got to experience that and it was profound. I was affected by it and I just heard her story.
00:09:35
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God is able to work in your heart while he reaches out to show the people you're praying for who he is. He handles all things at once. Well, and what we're putting forth out of this passage in Matthew 9 is that God carries out his mission of love, forgiveness, and rescue through people who are following him.
00:09:57
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Find a cause that you care about. Find a ministry. Join up with a youth ministry like Youth for Christ. Pray that God would send workers into the harvest. Send his people.
00:10:12
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Maybe even send you to tell young people who he is. Well, if you want to connect and learn more about what we're doing with prayer locally at Central Ohio Youth for Christ,
00:10:23
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shoot a quick email to pray at C-O-Y-F-C dot org. And if this has been helpful for you, share this podcast episode with friends, family, students who might be interested in connecting with God, anyone you know who might need a little encouragement today to relate to God.
00:10:41
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Pray and See podcast. This is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ. We'll see next time.