We Don't Have To Do It Alone

"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

Jesus faced all the same testings that we face, but He didn't sin. When we're facing difficulty we can go to Jesus. We don't pray to someone who doesn't understand. He's not looking down on us asking why we're struggling. He doesn't wonder why we're struggling. It's the exact opposite. Jesus understands our weaknesses!

We can go to Jesus for help because He knows what we're going through and how to overcome it. He's the ultimate overcomer. He did it without ever failing or falling short. Because of that, He can help us to overcome as well. 

Jesus said that it was better that He go away, because  He would then send the Holy Spirit in His place. The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our helper, our counselor, and our teacher. The Holy Spirit gives us power. We can come boldly to the throne of God where we will find two things.

First, we find mercy at the throne of God, because of Jesus. We all need mercy. If we start feeling like we don't need mercy we're just fooling ourselves. It's so refreshing to remember that regardless of our  past and how we have failed the first thing we find when we run to our Father is mercy.

But these verses show that we find more than mercy to cover our shortcomings. It says we'll find mercy and we'll also find grace to help us when we need it most, in our time of need. Grace is often defined as unmerited favor, but this grace mentioned in Hebrews 4 is an active and empowering grace. This is grace that will help us when we need it most. 

This is the grace gives power to the addict to put away what he is powerless to walk away from. This is grace that gives us strength in our time of weakness. This is the grace that shows us a way to escape the fear and the doubt that threatens to overwhelm us when the situations in our life become more pressing than we can bear. This grace gives us the power to do what we could not do on our own.

That's one of the most wonderful aspects of the good news of Jesus Christ. He doesn't just leave us on our own. He doesn't  just save us and then say, "OK, now do good. Stop messing up." Through relationship with Him we also have relationship with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to help us and give us grace in our moments of weakness. So when we face a difficult or dangerous situation, He is there to whisper to our soul. "Watch out, there is something there that wants to steal you away from me." "Be careful, that's not a good idea." "Hey, here's how to escape this." :I know you're walking through a mine field. Listen to me, and I'll tell  you were it's safe to put your foot down. I've walked through this field before, and I know where the bombs are buried,"

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37 In the midst of everything going on in our lives, in every area that we are powerless on our own, we have power to overcome and conquer through Jesus, Philippians 4:13 is a promise that we can do all things, overcome and face anything that comes against us and find our way through any situation we find ourselves in through Christ who strengthens us. We don't have to rely on our own strength, which is good because we are powerless to break the bondage of self on our own. But when and where we are weak, He is strong.

We aren't supposed to face temptation or struggle with the troubles of life on our own. We have relationship with a God who  wants to walk with us. We are not alone. We can go to Him, boldly and in the assurance that we have the right to without fear of rejection and find His mercy and His grace for every need in our life. He loves us and gives us His strength to use in every area of our life that we are weak. That is the beauty of the gospel. Relationship with Jesus is about a lot more than just heaven or hell. It's about victory in our lives at this moment as well.