"Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission, till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. "(Lam. 3:48-50)
We see a grave insensitivity and hardness of heart gripping the men of our generation. The mass media, newspapers, TV and magazines are full of violence and the coverage given to heartless acts of terrorism and bloodshed is simply appalling. All this has the effect of making the heart hard and compassionless.
A man came up to the platform soon after a public address and said to me: "Sir, just like you were saying in your message now, I got drunk, beat my wife who was pregnant and drove her away. Then I deceived another girl into thinking that I was an unmarried man and married her." For the first time in his life, this man began to repent for his sins and turn to Christ. Moreover his free-wheeling sexual promiscuity had brought upon him an awful skin disease and I had to pray for him. Compassion for his poor wife, whom he had ill-treated so much, was only just beginning to dawn upon him. Sin and immorality make the heart as hard as granite. But when sin is confessed to Jesus and put away, then love and concern for others breaks upon us as a new dawn.
When you stand before the cross of Jesus, there comes an unmistakable melting in your heart. That studied coldness, that lofty indifference to the cry of human misery, that icy expressionless countenance would give way to a positive attitude and love. The warmth of heaven comes into that hard and wintry face. This is the love of Jesus, just seeping in.
In the Book of Lamentations we see the prophet Jeremiah grieving over the spiritual destitution of Jerusalem. With a prophet's foresight he had foretold the physical destruction of Jerusalem. Now he weeps for the people of God. "Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people."
The art of modern hypocrisy is so advanced that people simply will not acknowledge that a higher standard of living is the full and final solution for their problems. How long are we going to delude ourselves into thinking that when we fill our homes with materialistic comforts of all sorts, then we shall be happy?
A lady in Germany said, "TV has brought a total breakdown in communication in our home. Formerly, we used to sit and talk with each other. Now my husband and children are so taken up with the TV programmes, they scarcely talk to me." What a tragedy! Another woman would have become a nervous wreck. But this lady who had repented for her sins and found the wonderful healing which Jesus gives to a sin-sick soul, at one of our retreats in Europe, is proving that Jesus is sufficient for all her need. I could weep for her. How much suffering her husband inflicts on her.
There are homes around us for whom we must shed tears in prayer. Real prayer opens a fountain of compassion in our souls. I simply can't understand how people spend all their days in a sort of selfish seclusion. It seems as though they have told themselves, "Well, there is little I can do to lift the load of others, while I am literally crushed by my own load." So saying they shut their eyes and walk through life, occupying themselves with nothing but their own wants and pleasures. One could weep for such people. What poor miserable persons they are! They are a curse to their own children.
A life without Christ, a heart without compassion and tearless eyes are a great calamity. You don't know what you are missing. How it grieves me when I get letters, which say, "I have never known a father's love!" Let us weep in prayer for souls who are lost, love-lorn and bitter in this sad world of ours.
from: http://lefi.org