WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit! O what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.

We all know about the privilege of prayer. We all know about the power of prayer. But I am also sure that the second half of that verse is true of each and every one of us sometimes. That each one of us has things we DON’T pray about when we could.

Perhaps there are things which bother us but which we think God wouldn’t care about.
Perhaps there are things which we feel are just too small, too trivial, to bother God with!
Or perhaps there are things we have prayed for so often and not received any answer, so we don’t bother to pray about those things any more.

Sometimes we think God can’t possibly understand our problems – our worries – our fears – our weaknesses. How could the all powerful all knowing Sovereign Creator God understand the difficulties we face? So we don’t pray about those things.
Perhaps there are things we are ashamed to pray about? Besetting sins, where we confess and ask forgiveness, but then fall into temptation again, so many times that we are now ashamed to go and confess, Lord I’ve done THAT again!! In so many areas, the hymn has got it right:-
O what peace we often forfeit! O what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry EVERYTHING to God in prayer.

The whole message of the letter to the Hebrews is encouragement to Christians who are thinking of giving up on their faith. This passage in Hebrews 4 gives encouragement to those who may have given up praying about things because they think prayer doesn’t work, or God doesn’t care, or God doesn’t answer, or God doesn’t understand. The whole letter says, “Don’t give up!” Why? Because

Hebrews 4:15 we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

When we need God, we can be confident that He will help us. When we need mercy and forgiveness God promises we will not be disappointed. When we need God’s grace and strength to help us in whatever situations we find ourselves, we can be confident that God will help us in our times of need.

And we can be sure this is true because Jesus is “not unable” to sympathise with our weaknesses. Quite the reverse. He is more than able to sympathise. Jesus understands. Whatever our situation: He knows what it’s like! When God became a human in Jesus Christ, He shared all our experiences of life!

He knows what it’s like. Think about Jesus’s BIRTH

Born in a borrowed stable, among the poor and needy. Spending his early years as refugees in a foreign country, living in fear of their lives, still hunted by their enemies. Returning to his parents’ village as downtrodden peasants in an occupied country. Growing up as a member of a race which was often ridiculed, hated and persecuted, in a family subject to rumours and suspicions of his legitimacy. With no great education, it would have been a rough life growing up in the back of beyond called Nazareth.
Jesus learned obedience to imperfect parents. As the oldest son, he had to cope with the grief of losing his father Joseph and the responsibility of taking over the family business as the village carpenter to provide for his mother and brothers. At the same time Jesus would have a growing sense of being called to a mission of immense importance, and enormous sacrifice. Whatever our situation, He knows what it’s like.

For He is our childhood’s pattern: Day by day like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless; Tears and smiles like us He knew:
And He feeleth for our sadness, And He shareth in our gladness.

Jesus knows what it is like to be a child and grow up in a sin-spoiled world. Jesus understands.

Then think about Jesus’s LIFE

Jesus went through the full range of human experiences. In the desert He faced forty days of extreme hunger and thirst. More than that, the experiences of being tempted Jesus faced were genuine temptations to sin, not just in the wilderness but throughout His ministry with the dubious company he kept, all those gluttons and drunkards and tax-collectors and “sinners”. He was indeed tempted exactly as much and in the same ways that we are – yet without sinning even once!

Hebrews 214 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. … 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

As well as battling with temptation, Jesus experienced every human emotion. He knew sadness and even the tragedy of the death of dear friends He deeply loved. At the graveside of Lazarus, “Jesus wept.” Jesus got angry at the ways Judaism had drifted away from God, angry in debates with the Pharisees and angry with the money-changers and the traders when He cleansed the Temple Courts.

Jesus understood completely the plight of the homeless: Matthew 8:20 – “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

The Bible does not record any occasion when Jesus was sick. But He had plenty of contact with sick people, in a world where most people would stay away from illness wherever possible, for reasons of religious purity as well as to preserve their own health.
The lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lepers. Even the dead! Jesus saw sickness and suffering close-up. And Jesus took the sufferings of others upon Himself. He said
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus was poor, not rich. He was powerless, not powerful. “Christ became what we are so that He could make us what He is.” Jesus knows what it is like to live in a sin-spoiled world. He’s been where we are. Jesus understands.

I am a fan of the American Drama the West Wing. In one memorable episode deputy White House chief-of-staff Josh Lyman is going through a very rough time. His boss Leo McGarry tells him this story.
“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.
“A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
“Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on
“Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.'”

Whatever our situation, whatever hole we are stuck down, however deep, Jesus has been here before and He knows the way out. Jesus understands. He can give us all the help we need!

Then think about Jesus’s DEATH

Jesus went through so many horrific experiences in the last seven days of his life. His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane reveals how Jesus experienced exactly the same fear in the face of death as any other human being would. Then he was betrayed by a man He had trusted. Trials by the Jewish Council the Sanhedrin, then by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, and even a mock trial in front of Herod the King of the Jews. Jesus experienced first-hand the essential unfairness of this fallen world. False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstood by family and friends. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. And as so often, good men standing by and doing nothing! The prophet Isaiah summed it all up so well.
He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and familiar with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

Then there was so much physical suffering. Jesus was flogged. A crown of thorns was pushed cruelly deep into his head. He was mocked and insulted. Then he was forced to carry His cross all the way along the Via Dolorosa. And finally Jesus was nailed to the cross, to die a lingering death.

But even more than physical suffering, Jesus experienced a depth of desertion no other human being could ever face. A sense that God the Father, with whom He had been eternally one, had deserted Him. There on the cross Jesus took the weight of all the sin of the world on his shoulders. Cut off from God the Father, God the Son knows exactly what it is like to suffer and even to die in this sin-spoiled world. Jesus understands.

Matthew 1:20 an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”

Immanuel – God with us. And the God with us did not have an easy life! He experienced all the sorrows and pains and miseries and griefs and anxieties and temptations human beings can ever face. Jesus knows what it’s like. Jesus understands.

Hebrews 5:7 5:7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

v.1 HE walked where I walk, He stood where I stand, He felt what I feel, He understands.
He knows my frailty, Shared my humanity, Tempted in every way, Yet without sin.
God with us, so close to us. God with us, Immanuel!

v.2 One of a hated race, Stung by the prejudice, Suffering injustice, Yet He forgives.
Wept for my wasted years, Paid for my wickedness, He died in my place That I might live.
God with us, so close to us. God with us, Immanuel!

Whatever problems we may be facing today, whatever challenges, whatever battles. We may be lonely, or afraid, or sad, or grieving, or confused. We may be feeling angry or deserted or betrayed or misunderstood. We may be suffering and even in great pain. Jesus understands. He knows what it’s like!

Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.