How are you coping under these ever-tightening lockdown restrictions? How is your mental health coping with the isolation? How is your physical health, given the restrictions over exercise? How is your family coping, being in each other’s pockets 24/7? How are your finances coping, if you’ve lost income? How are parents and students coping with home schooling? And most importantly, how is your relationship with the Lord going?
If you answered ‘not so good’ to any of the above questions, perhaps you could ‘try with a little help from your friend’. Not ‘friends’, as the Beatles told us, but ‘friend’; meaning Jesus. We’ve been working through the book of Hebrews across Term 3, whose message is; ‘since Jesus is awesome, stick with Jesus’. Last week we saw yet another way in which Jesus is awesome; he is our great high priest (Heb 4:14).
In OT times, the high priest had 2 main roles: (i) to intercede for the people with God, by offering ‘gifts and sacrifices for sin’ (Heb 5:1), and (ii) to ‘deal gently’ with the people (Heb 5:2), by helping with their daily struggles. The problem with the old covenant was sacrifices were needed every year, on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), before the people could come before God. The beauty of Jesus is by sacrificing himself, he has ‘become the source of eternal salvation’ (Heb 5:9), meaning Christians can now ‘approach the throne of grace with confidence (Heb 4:16).
So what are we waiting for! If you’re struggling emotionally, physically, relationally, financially or intellectually, take it to the Lord in prayer. Even more importantly, if you’re struggling spiritually, perhaps with a habitual sin, a lack of motivation or an absence of joy, Jesus is waiting to hear from you.
Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.
