Empathy

For Sunday School for the next few weeks, I have the great privilege of meeting with my Pastor's wife, Lola, for one on one mentoring. She is helping me with some areas of struggle in my life, as well as giving me advice and counsel for my married life. This past Sunday, she encouraged me to find "life verses" to get me through particular trials or struggles in my life. They could be commands, promises, encouragement or God simply telling me He loves me. I wanted to find ones that applied to this point in my life, rather than just selecting ones I have used in the past, and spent some time going through past encouraging verses. Here is the first one that I came up with. I will post my other one soon. May you too be encouraged.

Hebrews 4:14-16
14Therefore, 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. 15For 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. 16Let 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.

I selected this verse to be a reminder of the power of Christ over the sins I find myself caught in most frequently. This verse fills me with awe. When I sin, which is quite often, the last thing I tend to think of is the fact that my Savior could relate to me. When I feel tempted in certain areas, sometimes I feel such compulsion to give in that I don't even listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And afterwards, I feel terribly hopeless and like a failure.

However, I am not alone. Even though Christ was without sin, He still felt the brunt of Satan's most direct temptation. Did His heart race like mine does? Did His mind feel like a blur of conflicting messages? I don't know what the exact experiences of Jesus were, but I know that the Word of God says that He was tempted in every way that we were. And through the power of God and the proclaiming of His Word, Jesus fought Satan's tempting voice.

He was without sin. Now I know that I will not be without sin in this lifetime, but I do have the promise of God that if I approach the throne of grace with confidence, I will receive mercy and grace to help in my time of need. The mercy is the undeserved forgiveness that God bestows upon me when I do fail. And the grace is the undeserved favor that I receive by being blessed with His Spirit who has the power to help me fight.


I feel such great comfort in knowing that Jesus not only is compassionate to my weaknesses and sin, but also completely understands how I am feeling. Even though the translation I have says that he sympathizes, I feel that it goes way beyond that, to the very concept of empathy. Empathy is not just understanding one's feelings, but actually entering into and experiencing one's feelings. Jesus does this for us so that we can have a perfect example of how to respond to tempting situations, and so that we may have hope to respond to them. Our Savior is so kind to go beyond saving us and actually give us this example and hope.


*sites used: www.biblegateway.com and www.dictionary.com