God Notions

Hebrews 2:14-18

¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

I had lunch with a friend last week and our conversations go from one topic to another in no particular order. It can be a wild ride, sometimes landing on a topic that leads to a more in-depth conversation than others. At one point she mentioned she wished there was more written about sin. “No one wants to talk about sin,” she said. I couldn’t stop thinking about her comment until I went to pray.

When I pray, I start with the character of God, reminding myself Who I am approaching prepares my heart and mind. When I get to my sin, I tend to gloss over it, “Lord Jesus forgive me of my sins…”. This time though I began to name them, which I will not do here, that is between me and Jesus, but, I will tell you this: when I dug deep and really became honest with myself and my Lord, my sins, especially those that are unseen and those unknown, even to myself…my sins of ignorance…became overwhelming. I began to feel helpless and a little hopeless.

How can He help me when He cannot understand how hard it is to be obedient, even the simplest command to love my neighbor becomes difficult when my neighbor is the nosy one, or even more, when it is the driver in the car in front of me obeying the speed limit?

Feeling lost, I opened my bible and a note I had written at the top of a page in Hebrews caught my eye. “The perfect Savior came to offer the life for which we were designed” I read: Hebrews 2:14 “Since the children have flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity…” vs 17, For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way…”

¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted

Jesus can lead me from temptation and sin because He understands being tempted, and even though He was tempted, He did not sin.

There was a man that was in a dark hole and could not get out. One came, looked down the hole and said, “I will pray for you.” And walked away. Another came and looked down, saw the man and threw him a rope saying “I have to go.” The third came and said, “I know how to help you.” And jumped down into the hole with the man. “Oh great,” said the man, “Now we are both stuck down here.” The third person said, “Don’t worry, trust me. I have been in this hole…and I know the way out, Follow Me.”

Lord,

Thank you for coming down into this hole to show me the way out.

Please forgive me, help me in my weakness and disobedience. Grow in my heart the desire to truly want to trust and follow You.