From Pity to Praise

Most people don’t recognize Good Friday as an important holiday. But it commemorates the crucifixion in the death of Jesus. This is an important event because it represents the sacrifices and suffering in Jesus‘s life. In the cross is often used as a symbol to people who followed Jesus.

The crucifixion was the conclusion of a number of events in Holy Week, including the triumphal return of Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus, and the Last Supper. This is known as Good Friday given there tragic events. It signifies the ‘Good’ and Good Friday does not describe these events, it actually comes from old English when Good meant Holy.

It is often celebrated with strict fasting or partial fasting which involves the exclusion of meat. Some churches also have services or prayer vigils.

Some people observe a quiet, somber day with limited entertainment, while others may hold small gatherings.

It’s a day to remember what Jesus died on the cross as the ultimate, substitutionary sacrifice to atone for our sins, fulfilling God’s requirement for justice and providing forgiveness. His death and resurrection bridges the gap between God and humanity, offering eternal life and salvation through faith to all who believe.

Survivor empathy is a deep capacity for understanding, born from adversity, that drives a commitment to sustain able choices and a purposeful life.

I’ve never really thought there was a different type of empathy until recently.

Survivor empathy begins with a human capacity to understand the feelings of another person. It is the ability to connect with an experience you may not have lived yourself, offering a bridge of shared emotion. It’s the most accessible form, it involves listening to someone who has face hardship and acknowledging that Validity of their story and their feelings.

It is a quiet, active presence, a way of communicating belief and support without needing to provide solutions. It’s a form of empathy that is a foundational social skill, that knits people together is through mutual understanding and care. When we see someone hurting and feel a resonance with that pain, we are tapping into this fundamental human connection.

People with survivor empathy, have a deeper understanding and possess a unique ability to see hidden emotions such as spotting fear behind the smile or fatigue behind a brave face.

This form of empathy is action oriented, it often needs survivors to a career advocacy, medicine, or roles that support vulnerable individuals.

Research shows that surviving traumatic events can, overtime transform initial personal distress to increase compassion for others.

There are challenges and characteristics of this:

• Hyper-Vigilance

People with survivor empathy tend to scan environments for danger, which can lead to accurately sensing others emotions.

• A Need for boundaries

As with someone with basic empathy, they may feel the pain of others so deeply that they often need to practice self-care to avoid overabsorption of others.

• Self-Empathy

Is important for someone with survival empathy’s journey to extend the same compassion they offer others to themselves treating their own healing with patience.

Ultimately, the empathy of a survivor is a “blessing” rising from “broken places,” allowing people to provide a unique kind of support, recognizing and validating the unseen struggles of others.

Not all empathy is born from love. And not all empathy comes from a natural openness to life. Their exist, a form of empathy that is carved not gifted. An empathy that emerge is not from safety, but from prolonged pressure and emotional danger. It is empathy of a survivor. The one who learned to read the atmosphere from a room long before they learn to trust it.

There’s tension in faith that most people don’t talk about openly. We like to think that God is purely protective, surely comforting -the One who shields, heals, and delivers. And He is. But there’s another side to that relationship that can feel unsettling at first. Sometimes, the same God who protects us is also the One who positions us in a place where we feel exposed.

It can feel at times, like He’s painting, a target on our back.

God doesn’t do this because He’s careless or cruel. But because purpose often requires visibility -and visibility invites opposition.

I think about moments in life that I’ve stepped into something meaningful, a calling or conviction. My decision to grow and change, to stand for something started quietly, but they attracted resistance, internally, externally, and spiritually. Suddenly, I felt seen in many ways I didn’t ask for. Vulnerability in ways I didn’t expect.

It’s easy in the moment to question, “Why would God lead me here if it’s just going to hurt?” But, what if the exposure isn’t abandonment? What if it’s alignment?

There’s a profound idea embedded in this paradox. The same God who paints the target on our back, is also the One who stops the arrow. The same God who refuses to leave us unguarded. The same God who calls us forward into any challenge, into growth, into risk -is the One who’s standing between you and what could ultimately destroy you.

It doesn’t always mean you won’t feel the arrow. But it does mean the arrow doesn’t get the final say.

Protection doesn’t always look like avoidance. Sometimes it looks like endurance. Sometimes it looks like transformation is in the middle of the very thing we hope to escape. And sometimes, it looks like unseen boundaries. The lines you never knew were there, or something meant to take you out simply doesn’t.

That’s the mystery of it.

We may feel targeted, but we’re not un guarded.

We may feel exposed, but we’re not abandoned.

And maybe just maybe the deeper truth is this: if God trust us enough to place us in a position where we are visible, it’s because He’s already committed to standing in the gap for us. Not always by removing the battle, but by redefining the outcome.

So maybe next time we feel like we’ve been single out, and somehow ended up in the line of fire, we should consider the possibility that there is more happening than we can see.

The same hand that let us there hasn’t let go.

The same presence that allowed the target is still present at the point of impact.

And the story isn’t about the arrow, it’s about who is standing between.

God sees what we cannot see -our future, our motivations of our hearts, and the spiritual, big picture of our lives.

I would have never thought throughout the struggles of my life that God was working on a path for me in the background. There were many times I thought my life was over, there was no moving on from the mistakes I had made, the disasters I so willingly put myself in. I could only see my current circumstances. Thankfully God acts out of divine protection and love, often turning struggles into blessing, opening closed doors.

God knows end from the beginning, understanding why certain opportunities are closed to protect us from future harm. He sees through character and the hidden things that no one else sees, including secret, prayers and tears.

God sees the spiritual realm. He’s aware of the spiritual battles and realities that are more permanent and guide us through them safely.

He sees our future path and understands the trajectories and places His hand is on us for protection and guidance, even when we feel like we’re stuck.

Someone asked me the other day, “Have you ever prayed for death?“ I was a bit taken back at the question. But, then I started thinking, and answered “many times.” So, many times I prayed for God to not let me wake up in the morning. As well as trying to do it myself. I never understood why I never succeeded. Now I know God had a different plan and purpose for my life.

When life feels confusing or prayers are not answered as we expect, know that God’s perspective is superior to our own, and He is orchestrating “divine detours” for our ultimate good.

“For I know the thoughts that I think towards you,” says the Lord, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a hope and a future” -Jeremiah 29:11

Doug Sheets does a 5 day a week 15 minute prayer time on YouTube. This was his prayer this morning. I thought it was perfect for this morning. It fits so well for this season we’re in:

We are in a time where every believer needs to function in the ability to to see, do you have spiritual perception.

We are living in changing times and experiencinggreater challenges. But there is good news. We do not have to pierce through the lens of adversity or hard times. We should either grope our way through hardship, rear off the highway of destiny, or even engage in survival mode in these times. Rather, we can stand strong and brave because as spiritual believers, we have God given eyes to see what others cannot.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:18 to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For the things which are not seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. We cannot give up but must continue to be people of action who fix our eyes on the unseen, believing in and having assurance of its existence.

While the measure of adversity, we face today is great, it is also indicative of our incredible opportunity that lies ahead. We can see through the tough stuff and the climate of the day, even though we may be are tired we can trust God has an incredible plan.

We have an advantage and that advantage of spiritual eyesight, which by reason abuse, and the Holy Spirit, we can learn to see through our circumstances into ways which we have never seen before.

Spiritual eyesight gives us an advantage to see the heavenly realm -what unbelievers cannot see. We look at the world with our natural eyes, but with our spiritual eyes, we look at the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 6:12 warns us of the reality of the reality of Spiritual realms. And that spiritual realm also includes fallen angels who oppose God’s purposes.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this words darkness.”

This verse emphasizes the spiritual nature of a believers battle against evil.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit moved upon the prophets of God, giving them the ability to see in the spirit.

The account of Daniel the prophet explains this well Daniel fasted and prayed for 21 days, seeking understanding of a vision while a spiritual battle rages in the unseen realm. Although he was heard on day one, a demonic entity called the Prince of Persia withstood the angelic messenger for three weeks until the archangel Michael intervened in 2 Samuel 12:16-23.

Under the New Testament covenant, the Holy Spirit is in all God’s people and available by His power, to help us see what we cannot otherwise see and what the unsaved cannot see. Paul explained it to the Corinthians this way.:

“Even if our Good News is veiled, it’s veiled in those who are dying, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.”

Believers do not live as a spiritually blind do. We want the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ Jesus to shine on us even brighter, illuminating greater knowledge and greater understanding of God’s marvelous plans and purposes. God has a desire to fill our hearts so that we may do exceedingly and abundantly above what we can think or ask. This is walking by faith and not by sight. Faith actually opens our spiritual eyes.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.” -Hebrews 11:1-3

The amplified Bible explains faith as the “conviction of our reality.” The more we see those unseen things in the spirit the greater the realm of faith in our circumstances will be. Natural eyes only see the surface of things -present realities, the appearance of the things as they are in the world. God has given us our physical eyes that are marvels of creation. They are wonders of the product of wisdom, skill, and creativity., they baffle scientist even today.

But by the power of the Holy Spirit, because of the blood of Jesus and our redemption in Him, God allows us to see what our natural eyes cannot. He allows us to see beyond the surface and into the reality of things as they really are, according to God’s plan, work, and good purposes. The moment we enter into a new relationship with our Creator through Jesus, we experienced a new birth. Like a natural birth it has a process. Gradually God opened our spiritual eyes to see what we could not see before well once we could only constitute surface meaning in the words of stories of the Bible, we are now able to go deep enough to see a greater dimension and fastest of wonder, beauty and the glory of God’s Word.

The Bible is a great history and storybook, but in the spiritual the light illuminates, the Scriptures come alive in a meaningful way. Words, truths, promises, instruction, revelation, nature, and history open up with our spiritual significance with direction and insight. With God supernatural help, we can behold every wonderful thing He has for us.

With spiritual vision, we understand our situations and faith that was once seemingly impossible. It’s an advantage to help us accomplish the smallest and greatest feats despite insurmountable worldly odds.

When John the Baptist saw Jesus for the first time, he had to see Jesus for who He really was, the Son of Man. A casual observers -like one of us, had we been there that day, may have seen Jesus as an unremarkable, plain, dusty, and modest, looking 30 something year old man. Im sure some of them did not notice Him at all. The Bible tells us in the book of Isaiah that nothing in His appearance would have necessarily attached someone to Him. Jesus was born into a humble carpenters, family, and a small farming town of Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth, a town swarmed by the elites of the day as a place of nothing good. Then one day He showed up where John was, at the Jordan River in Northern Israel, an obscure and desolate location in the wilderness. John saw Jesus as the Lamb of God who had taken away the sin of the world. John had eyes to see what the world could not. The Father had opened them when He designated John as the one who would prepare the way for His Son. John would point Jesus out to the world.

Jesus was a savior of the world, and the Holy Spirit His gentleness and power.