Monday, September 21, 2009

Jesus running to help?

In my quiet time this morning I came across the phrase in Hebrews 2:18, “He is able to succor them that are tempted.” The reason given was because He Himself suffered and was tempted with everything that we could be and yet without caving in.
The word “succor” caught my attention. It reminded me of a science term for a branch that is grafted into a tree and gains life from the established plant. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines succor “to run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress.”
What an incredible God! He not only is a “very present help in time of trouble” according to Psalm 46, but consider also His heart and attitude in being with us in those tough times. Can you picture Him running to help you just when you need it. He takes pleasure in us trusting His help rather than giving up.
No wonder God warns us about the deceitfulness of sin. Sin lies. It wants us think that we are powerless and that God doesn’t care and may even have fdeserted us. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We are engraved in the palms of His hands. He never leaves His children alone. He knows every pain and temptation that we endure.
God reminds us not to cast away our confidence for it has great reward. Then He paints this picture of Him running to help so we don’t have to believe the lie that the situation is winning. God is pleased when we maintain our confidence in Him and His word during the hard times. In Hebrews 3:6, the word declares that “we are His house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
The word today is simple: you can trust Jesus’ help, He has been there and won. So you can rejoice, because now grafted into Jesus, you win! Rejoice!

2 comments:

  1. That's an interesting double-analogy, Gene! I never knew the word had anything to do with grafting trees.

    Do you really have a Webster's from 1828, or is it an online version? That's really neat. I remember my dad had an Encyclopaedia Britannica set from the 1920's, which was his dad's. Unfortunately, I was too young to appreciate it at the time, and when we left Romania, it was sold.

    How sad that a lot of textbooks and reference books today are being corrupted by secular progressive thinking. As you know, we homeschool, and we keep hearing that we shouldn't trust any history books printed after the 1960s.

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  2. I love that Jesus loves me so much. When I read this, I thought about the story of the foot prints in the sand. And how the single footprints were not ours walking alone but His while He carried us. It really shows that you can’t base your trust or your relationship with Christ on your feeling. Because we are so easily deceived into thinking that if we don’t really feel Him, He’s not there. But He is.
    I also really like that you said that we are engraved in His hand. It kind of blows my mind that Jesus has a real physical reminder of how much He loves us (not that he needs one). But it just makes it real. Like if you broke a bone, most people don’t ever forget that, and most of them don’t forget why or how it happened either. It makes me feel really special, but it also really humbles me. It’s like “Aw, Jesus you love me so much”, but then I become broken because of what He actually endured. And if He endured so much for me, why can’t I do the little hard things for Him, especially since I know He is with me every step of the way.

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