Your prayer to commit this week into the hands of the Lord is a right and wise beginning, for wisdom is the compass by which a man is to steer across the trackless waste of life, and he who commits his work unto the Lord shall find his plans established. You have well quoted that word, Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans, and I join my own petition to yours that it may be so proved in your labour day by day.
You ask for wisdom, patience, compassion and strength to provide purposeful care, and these are graces not to be found in our own nature but to be sought from Him who gives liberally. True wisdom comes not from within ourselves, for to say I have strength enough and wisdom enough within myself is the very opposite of the way of wisdom. It comes from above, from Him who has said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and whose way is past finding out except as He reveals it. Seek it then in His Word and by prayer, that you may judge rightly and act discreetly. And patience, of which you have heard in Job, is not learned without trial. It is the patience of a greatly tried man, imperfect and full of infirmity, yet sustained under bereavement and personal affliction, and made by grace a great power for good. May the Lord make your patience such a power in the sick room and by the bedside, that even the utterly dependent may magnify the Lord by seeing Christ in your endurance.
You ask also for compassion, and here you have the very mind of Christ. He was moved with compassion when He saw the multitude, and still He looks upon infirmities and imperfections not with anger and not with loss of patience, but with gentleness and sympathy. A Christian without compassion has missed a vital part of the Christian character. Labour then to be tenderhearted, pitying and full of compassion toward those committed to your care. Have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, remembering that the more trouble it costs you to bring comfort or help to a soul, the greater will be your reward, and that our Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, can have compassion most perfectly upon both you and those you serve.
You desire to promote dignity, confidence, recovery and independence, to recognize abilities and to assist only where necessary. This is a holy purpose. Give man wisdom and he rises to all the dignity that manhood can know, for Christ has espoused our nature and linked humanity to Himself, and therefore every person bears a dignity not to be despised. Yet remember that the best independence is not to stand alone, for it is not by might nor by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Teach those in your care to do what they can, encourage every honest effort, and let not a false superiority hinder them, but let your service strengthen their confidence while you gently point them to depend first upon God, from whom all true strength comes.
I pray that the Lord will guide your hands, your words, your decisions and your observations, that every intervention may produce meaningful progress and not be unprofitable. May your service reflect excellence without pride, humility without neglect, love without weariness, and the grace which you have yourselves received. May you serve as one who is a debtor to divine compassion, and therefore renders compassion freely to others.
May the Lord establish the work of your hands this week, make you faithful in little things and great, and cause your care to be a testimony that you serve not yourself but Christ, who had compassion on you. In the name of Jesus our merciful High Priest, Amen.
