Sympathy

What does the word sympathy mean and when was the last time you showed someone sympathy?  The dictionaries definition is a feeling or expression of pity or sorrow for the distress of another, or showing compassion.  As we walk each day there are those around us who are lost without Christ.  They may me a drug addict, an alcoholic, a child who is hurting, a mother who is being abused, a widow, someone with cancer or another disease and those who are homeless.  How do I show sympathy to them?  Do I offer them a solution or do I keep walking in the way I was going?   In Luke 19:10 God’s word tells us “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."  Jesus went out to those that were in these conditions and offered them life.  (John 4) When the Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water, Jesus asked her to give him a drink.  She said you are a Jew and they do not associate with my people.  Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  Those around us need for someone to show them sympathy and to love them.  Some of our families are facing situations where God is showing sympathy to them and is causing their world to crumble (this is God’s love for them causing All things to work together for good to those whom He has called).  This is the love of Jesus telling them that He loves them and He is standing there offering them living water.  Let us pray and ask the Lord to send us to those who are going through trials and tests that He has brought us through.   Unless we have been in their shoes it is hard to show true sympathy.  I too was lost and undone without Christ when someone showed me sympathy and the love of God.  Sometimes all it takes is a listening ear or shoulder to cry on to lighten some ones load.  We have the living water living inside of us and the only answer to help those in need.