‘Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.’ Hebrews 2:18(NLT)
‘So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.’ Hebrews 4:14-16(NLT)
‘Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. ‘ Ephesians 3:12(NLT)
We find access to God’s power through the One who understands our thorns. The high priest we have is Jesus Christ, relocated from heaven to become the sacrifice and mediator for His people.
As our high priest, Jesus is not rigidly religious, gigantically judgmental, or dangerously disconnected from real life. Jesus is no Pharisee, rolling His eyes when we fail, outwardly tolerating us but inwardly reviling our weaknesses. No, Jesus actually sympathizes with us where we are weak. Jesus knows you are weak, and He gets you. He doesn’t merely listen well. He sympathizes. He understands the real frustrations you encounter. As a loving high priest, He empathizes with the areas in which you suffer. And He doesn’t sympathize as an outsider. He’s not the guy who read a book on weakness or quickly Googled it to become conversant. No, the Savior knows you on an experiential level. As our perfect high priest, Jesus is “One who in every respect has been tempted as we are.”
What defining moments of weakness are you facing right now? Bad week battling lust? Jesus understands. He knows the temptation. Struggling with resentful thoughts over some way you feel mistreated? Jesus gets it. He was royally shafted by people and wrestled through the temptation to feel resentful. Fretting over work? Sweating the finances? Feeling forgotten? Jesus knows all this.
Jesus knows how a fallen world affects you, how temptations compete for supremacy within your soul. Jesus gets the shame—the demoralizing feeling that accompanies the skirmish between what you feel and who you are called to be. Jesus understands, and He sympathizes with us. He’s written our story. And from that place of perfect knowledge, dipping all the way down to our DNA, He issues this life-transforming invitation:
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Are you weak? Is your marriage seriously suffering? Are you tempted to throw in the towel, to give up on your role as husband or wife? Tempted to say you aren’t cut out for marriage? Are you in need of power when you’re experiencing thorns? Draw near, Jesus says, and in the cleft of weakness, you’ll find His power to make you strong and your marriage last long.
Name a struggle or weakness you are experiencing today, then confidently ask Jesus for His help in passing through it.
from I Still Do by Dave Harvey