DAY 6 : HOLD ON TIGHT Hebrews 4:14,15
“Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.” (MSG)
The incarnation, God putting on skin, God pursuing us…..get that!, GOD pursuing US!
We have Jesus, our great High Priest - an intermediary between God and mankind. We have Him because and only because He has chosen to come to us, to chase us down, out of some, literally, unfathomable love.
The author of Hebrews encourages, reminds, tells us to “hold fast our confession” of this reality. Hold fast in the Greek means “to use strength, to seize or retain, to hold onto or take”. I like that strong language. It points to the fact that what we are to hold fast must be really valuable and important, that we should not let it slip through our fingers.
But I think we do let it slip through too often. Not by choice usually, by accident, by carelessness, by laziness, by neglect. We have to hold onto a lot of other things too and so sometimes it just slips through. I lose sight of or forget the absolutely incredible truth that God has come from eternity to seek and save me! I’m not ungrateful, but maybe that truth has just lost its luster and newness. It happens all the time - the new car is not the thrill it was at first, the new springtime relationship gets muddled in the doldrums of February - it’s just reality. So what are we to do?
I think part of the answer is in the very next sentence. “We don’t have a high priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all- all but the sin.” A large part of the power of the incarnation is that Jesus gets us, He understands, really understands, an “I’ve-been-there, no-really” kind of understanding.
“So, let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give...mercy...help.”
Jesus - the only god who gets us because he chose to be us.
Incarnation, God with skin, Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, not waiting for us to get to Him (we can’t) but coming to us! Father, help us to know this more deeply and truly than we do now.
REFLECTION:
Morning Pause: As you begin the day, thank God that He gets you and try to pay attention to where you want or need Jesus to be present.
Afternoon Pause: Ask, “Am I holding fast to the promise? Where are the places in me and around me so far today that have challenged me, encouraged me? Where have I brought God-with-me to my day and the people in my day?”
Evening Pause: As you close the day think about the ways that you let the truth of God-with-us slip through your fingers today. Ask Him to forgive you and to help you to begin tomorrow in new mercy and help.