DaySpring Daily Word of Inspiration: Hebrews 4:15 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.

We often look at our lives as unique, unrelatable, or even new experience that others can’t possibly understand because they haven’t walked a day in our shoes. This is not always necessarily true. As we meet people, we share similar experiences and trials from our lives but there never quite exactly our own. We are drawn to others whose lives have a reflection of our own and are most familiar. We look for that empathy and the ability to be connected with those who have an understanding of our life’s experiences. One of the issues with these encounters with people is that these shared experiences let us down too because those we’ve connected with have lost in the same battles and wars that we need to overcome.

So we find the church, yippee! However, there are still the same defeated people who haven’t been able to cross over the threshold. Why is that? Once you’re at church its full of messed up people just like me, so why aren’t we all winning the battle of sin in our lives? There are a couple of reasons. First, you have a sin nature. You will never be able to stop sinning as long as you wear flesh (not saying there isn’t hope to limit the amount of sin you commit, just that it will never stop – that’s why we need a savior). Secondly, we look to (imperfect) people to get empathy for our weakness, when they are just as weak as us (albeit in various different areas, we still share that same boat). Now here’s the kicker, so what hope do we have?

In the Old Testament, people would go to the high priest to make atonement or sacrifice for their sins. The high priest (a sinful man) would go before the Lord behind the veil to do the ceremonial sacrifices and pray for the forgiveness of your sins. In the New Testament, Jesus comes along (Thank God). He in turn becomes our new High Priest (a sinless man) and sacrificed himself before God for the atonement of our sins. Why do I share this with you? Simply because where one man’s sacrifice had to be continual and was never enough, Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins was once and for all! It was perfect! The beauty in that is directly related to our passage from today. Jesus was a man (flesh covered the deity of God) that walked this Earth, blameless and sinless. He experienced every single temptation that is & has been known to mankind, but did not sin! This is more than encouraging because when we feel we don’t have a perfect example to relate to us or someone who can share our struggles with, we can look to Jesus and he can truly empathize with our weakness and show us a perfect outcome.

Not only that, Jesus can show us how to be better and blameless as well. We don’t have to look to people because they have the same flawed character as we do. However, when we look at Christ, we know that he can show us the path to overcoming because he did it himself!!

Today we pray that as you go through your many trials, afflictions, and weaknesses that you don’t look toward people for your strength or justify why you can’t be better since no one else is, but that you look toward Jesus because of his ability to share in your pain and show you the perfect way to get beyond that. We now have a high priest who can do both and his teachings are good because his way was perfect! Share your life with the perfect high priest and be perfected by living in his example. We may well all fall short, but getting a perfect picture on how to change is always better than a distorted picture. Jesus was perfect, people are not. Share your life wisely. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!