"Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water” (Lamentations 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 carnage 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 who had worshipped Mary so much began to repent for his sins and turn to Christ. Moreover, his freewheeling 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 unmistakeable melting in your heart. That studied coldness, that lofty indifference to the cry of human misery, that icy, expressionless countenance all give way before a great thaw. 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.
Lamentations 3:48-50: "Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.”
The art of modern hypocrisy is so advanced that they simply will not acknowledge that a higher standard of living is the full and final solution for our 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?
I asked a lady in Europe: "How has the television affected your home?” She 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 my 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. He professes to be an agnostic but most of the children in their home are converted and are praying for their dad’s conversion.
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. A letter, which I read today, asked me to pray for a young non-Christian girl who has just turned to Christ. The letter said, "She is in grave moral danger in her own home.” Do you realise, dear listener, that there are tender young women in some homes, who feel so oppressed and fearful that they have no protection, and they may be scarred for life in their own homes! Do you know that there are children who know not parental love? How it grieves me when I get letters, which say, "I have never known a father’s love”.
At one of my meetings in Europe, a young man pushed his way to the front. He could hardly contain himself while I was speaking. I did not know why he wanted so badly to speak. All he wanted to say was: "What this preacher has been saying about broken homes is true. See, my mother has been running after other men. She did not even care to send me a birthday card for my recent birthday. I have never had a happy Christmas.” I told one of the men converted in my meetings, who had himself once been a smuggler and a slave to uncleanness, "Brother, please see that at this Christmas this boy has love.” Christmas was only 15 days away and this brother rented a lovely scenic forest lodge and gathered some homeless boys and had a special Christmas celebration for them, complete with the preaching of the Word of God.
Let us weep then in prayer for souls who are lost, love-lorn and bitter in this sad world of ours. The lights seem to shine only for the wealthy.
When one is moneyed and young, it looks as though all nature smiles for him. But this is not true. The young people of today have sorrows and burdens coming upon them quite disproportionate to their tender years. We need to weep before the Lord Jesus to send the Good News and thus the deliverance to embittered, frustrated and drug-bound young people, to whom life has become a wearisome burden.
Yes, Jeremiah wept that the people of Israel had lost their purity and the fear of the Lord. They were pretty nearly disowned by God and carried away captive. They had not heeded his warning and repented of their sins. Jeremiah was a man whose heart was like the heart of God””full of grief for the lost condition of the sinners.
Dear listener, if you would just let go [of] that stony heart, Jesus will give you a new heart where there is love and compassion for the lost. Your mouth too will then begin to speak of the great Saviour, who gave His life-blood, so that you may be forgiven and filled with His love and compassion.