Great Compassion!

In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.(Isaiah 54:8 NIV)

Anger--emotional turbulence that sometimes leads to regrets--at least on our part, should never negate love of someone. God shows us here that even though, in a surge--electric turbulence generating strong emotion--of anger, He chose not to respond to us, but never stopped loving us.
How many times have we as parents allowed anger to generate turbulent emotional responses from us towards our children? Did we stop loving them simply because we were angry with them? Did we make sure they knew how to not ignite turbulent emotions within us, again? When we are angry, do we not ignore those with whom we are angry for a time? Our response to those with whom we get angry is genetic--we got it from Our Father--and yet do we love as Our Father loves or do we allow the turbulence to continue unabated and lose a right relationship with others?

Parents who get angry with children with whom they never remind the children they forgive them and love them breed angry children. Those angry children continue to allow their turbulent emotions to run rampant, unchecked and hatred for others grows and extends beyond the household where it began, but creeps into an unsuspecting society, spreading like the plague. Angry kindergarten children graduate to being angry middle-schoolers and then angry high-schoolers who body-slam security guards, rape classmates, taunt and kill teachers, and then become a statistic which sociologists study, but can find no solution to the problem--no way to break the cyclic-curse.

All of this stems from a society of people who disown God and know not how He operates--though He gets angry and ignores us for a moment, His mercy is everlasting and His compassion endures forever. We ignore Him and have not compassion or love for Him and it is evident with all those in prisons, morgues, and cemeteries. It is evident with all of the misguided unwed mothers and all of those caught up in rebellious behavior, including sexual immorality.

We must become more like Him if we are see the curse broken and all of the earth in position to receive God's mercy and compassion--all benefits of being His children.

Father, in the name of Jesus, help us to become more like You and show great compassion for people when we get angry. For Your Word allows us the emotional turbulence of being angry, but that anger should not cause us to sin against You or others. Give us, O God, a heart of flesh that hears You and desires to obey You.