Yes, Jesus is compassionate. He knows how our sin is hard; so He says >
"'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in part, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.'" (Matthew 11:28-30)
Each day, I need to wake up to Jesus more.
First, I was very cruel and selfish and dishonest. Then I got terrified of going to Hell; so I decided to be good, but I became a goody-goody two-shoes religious and social misfit, not really trusting in Jesus and submitting to how He changes us . . . not knowing how to love.
But I got out of my way of fake religion and asked Jesus to save me and take care of me for all eternity. But then I turned into a self-righteous person criticizing pretty much everyone. And I lost that fake faith which was not "faith working through love" (in Galatians 5:6), and I spent time in isolation and realizing how I was my main problem.
But I was in the military then and spending time learning Italian on the streets; and this was good, how I got away from everything, to share with the Italians and maybe at times meet a Christian who was kind with me. How they were kind had me thinking this was what God wanted me to see.
So, may be God was not through with me, I considered and felt a little bit encouraged to go on and find out.
And I considered how the Bible says,
"But rather let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." (1 Peter 3:4)
So, God was greatly pleased with a
"meek and quiet spirit"? I sure needed this, instead of how I could be troubled and ashamed and criticizing!! Possibly, this was letting me know that I needed to be saved and become meek and quiet. And Jesus says He is
"meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). So, I saw the connection, how having
"a meek and quiet spirit" could be like how Jesus is
"meek and lowly in heart". So, may be, I considered, God wanted me to become like Jesus!!!
But I wasn't sure. Then I went through other things with the Bible and experience, including how I was not really in control of my own self; I was helpless, and I needed how God could take me and do all He pleases with me. So, I trusted blindly that He would do what He wanted.
Then one day I was at a temp job workplace, and I was getting frustrated about not being able to figure things out. And in my mind I heard something like >
"I want you to trust in Christ. Do not try to straighten your own self out, first, but Jesus is able to do what He knows He wants to do with you."
And I thought of how that "thief of the cross" possibly had never met Jesus before he was hanging on that cross next to Jesus. But he realized who Jesus is and that he needed Jesus, and so he trusted Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes in His kingdom.
So, I sensed for if God in me was having me pray to Jesus and offer myself to Him and I trusted Him to take me and do whatever He wanted with me. And it was like two giant spiritual gobs of mercy dropped on me and each one transformed me more into encouragement and beauty and sweetness and submission to God in very pleasant and kind peace. And then I would just thank Jesus and do what I found God was having me do.
I am still in correctional custody > Hebrews 12:4-11. But love is working, succeeding more and more as I grow and God changes my nature, I would say. But God is the Judge; He knows who I really am, and how. And have compassion on any and all people, knowing it could be me >
"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)
One sort of a practical thing which might help is how God so values
"a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (in 1 Peter 3:4) And 1 John 4:17 says >
"Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
So, if He wants us to be gentle and quiet in spirit and His love makes us
"as He is" "in this world". I consider this means God Himself is gentle and quiet.
He is not silent, then, but quiet in His love. And so, if we are being noisy in ourselves and in selfish loving (Matthew 5:46), this is part of how we are not connecting and sharing intimately with God.
We might remember how Elijah ran from Jezebel, and then wanted to die. But then God encouraged him and he had a vision of how the LORD was not in the strong wind and earthquake and fire, but there was
"a still small voice" which actually communicated with Elijah.
1 Kings 19:1-18
So, yes God might get our attention with even mighty wonders. But His love can communicate deeper and quietly
And this is what happened with Paul, I consider > how he had that
"thorn in the flesh" thing, of how
"a messenger of Satan" was allowed to mess with him whenever he gave in to doing things in his own ego > then was when that thorn demon could parry past his defenses and pop goes the puffed-up ego. And Paul was begging
"three times" (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) for that problem to go away. But Jesus, in that case, was not going to give Paul some miracle of convenience, but Jesus said,
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." (in 2 Corinthians 12:9)
So, Paul on his own could not get the message of all that proof of how he could fail while acting in ego, but he needed to have a little talk with Jesus.
And all the wonders of creation and miracles and visions have not really done all we need. But Jesus proves Himself to us, in us

(Philippians 2:13, John 15:5, 2 Corinthians 3:4-5, Romans 12:3). And He uses us to love and help each other







