"HE...EXPERIENCED...ALL THE PAIN, ALL THE TESTING."
(HEBREWS 2:18 TM)
Jesus knows how you feel!
Are you financially strapped? Jesus knows how you feel. He said He
didn't have a place to lay His head. Do you feel taken advantage of?
Jesus paid taxes
to a foreign emperor. But what if your problem is the opposite? You have
a successful business to run. Can Jesus relate? Absolutely. He recruited
and oversaw
His own organization. Seventy men, plus an assortment of women who
looked to Him for leadership. Do you make budgets and hire personnel?
Christ knows leadership
is not easy. His group included a zealot who hated the Romans and a tax
collector who worked for them. And how about family tension? "When His
family heard
what was happening, they tried to take Him home with them. 'He is out of
his mind' they said" (Mk 3:21 NIV). Have you been falsely accused? The
night before
His death people "tried to find something false against Jesus so they
could kill him" (Mt 26:59 NCV). Oh yes, Jesus has been there. He
experienced "All
the pain, all the testing." Max Lucado writes: "Jesus was angry enough
to purge the temple, distraught enough to weep in public, fun-loving
enough to be
called a drunkard, winsome enough to attract kids, poor enough to borrow
a coin for a sermon illustration, radical enough to get kicked out of
town, responsible
enough to care for His mother, tempted enough to know the smell of
Satan, and anxious enough to sweat blood." But why would Christ endure
earth's toughest
pain? So that you would know that "He is able...to run to the cry
of...those who are being...tested" (Heb 2:18 AMP). Whatever you're
facing today, Jesus
knows how you feel!