The closer I live to God, the more sensitive I will be to the needs of people. Is there any greater sensitivity to human need than “God so loved the world”? The tragedy is that often we become harder toward people as we walk with God. If so, something is terribly amiss. It was after John had walked with Jesus for two years that he wanted to rain fire upon the heads of the Samaritans (Luke 9:51-56). I must not think that merely being in company with Jesus is going to make me tender-hearted toward mankind.
The Old Testament priest, when ending his official duties, was to put on the common clothing of the people (Ezekiel 42:14). So my service to God must make me people-prone; otherwise it is empty service. I must come from the sanctuary on the people’s level. Jesus came from His Father dressed in human flesh, and that sets the pattern for me.
Walking with God can make me intolerant, demanding, and holier-than-thou. This means there is something in my makeup that has not caught the mind of God. Something in my heart has not softened to His touch. I have received enough of Him to stimulate me, but not to intoxicate me. God-intoxicated men are marvelously warm and alive to human needs. John, the “son of thunder,” later became the “apostle of love,” but only after God had so possessed him that he breathed love from every pore. I must be more than merely “touched by God.” I must be like Paul: “We were gentle among you, even as a nurse [with] her children”(1 Thessalonians 2:7, KJV). He was a “consumed” disciple whose heart beat as tenderly as the One by whom he was consumed. Only in this way do I begin to approach the servant ministry of Jesus Christ.
“But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7).
Daily with the King 