Where To Turn In Time of Need
Everyone experiences needs in life, whether they are material, physical, emotional, or spiritual. Many people seek answers through various avenues that often prove deceptive or ultimately fail to meet their requirements, leaving them exactly where they started.
The ultimate, guaranteed source for meeting every need is Jesus Christ. This message explains why Jesus is the only Person we must approach for direction, comfort, and provision, no matter the need.
Jesus: The Only Person Who Knows Our Needs Perfectly
The foundational reason for turning to Jesus is that He knows everything about us. God is the only One who possesses absolute, total, complete, and infinite knowledge.
- No Secrets with God: There is no creature hidden from His sight; all things are open and laid bare (uncovered) to the eyes of the One to whom we are accountable. This means God sees our real thoughts, feelings, desires, hurts, and pains. We might fool others, but God the Father knows it all.
- Perfect Knowledge: God knows every need we have, every day, every hour, and every moment. He knows how we think, why we are depressed, afraid, lonely, or discouraged. He doesn’t just know what is happening; He knows why it is going on and the solution to solve it.
- Intimate Acquaintance: Psalm 139 states that the Lord has searched us and known us, scrutinizes our path, and is intimately acquainted with all our ways. Our Father knows what we need before we even ask Him.
If we go to human professionals, such as physicians, they may take tests and give reports, but they know very little about us compared to God, who created our bodies. Jesus is the only Person in existence who knows everything about us—inside, outside, our motives, desires, and secret sins.
Jesus: Our Great High Priest and Only Access to Holy God
The second reason Jesus is the ultimate source of help is His role as our Great High Priest. This position is central to having access to God.
The Role of the High Priest
In the Old Testament, the high priest was the only one permitted to enter the Holy of Holies once a year to place atoning blood for the sins of the nation. This system was a foreshadowing of the coming Messiah.
Jesus, identified as the Lamb of God, is the Great High Priest who passed through the heavens. He is now seated at the Father’s right hand, making intercession for believers. This position signifies royalty, power, authority, ruling, and reigning.
Sin and Separation
The Bible states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Our sins separate us from Holy God, who is light and has no darkness in Him. Therefore, sinful humanity cannot approach Holy God based on personal goodness or works. Believing we can approach God based on how “not too bad” or “pretty good” we have been is an act of pure pride, deception, and ignorance.
Atonement and Access
Jesus came into the world primarily to die and shed His blood at Calvary as the Father’s final and ultimate sacrifice. The shedding of His blood paid the sin debt of all mankind in full in one act.
- The Only Way: It is the blood of Jesus that covers our sin and makes it possible for us to approach Holy God.
- Rejecting Access: When an individual rejects Jesus Christ, they reject the only covering for their sin and the only access to God the Father. They reject the one way to Jehovah God of the Bible.
- Jesus is the Way: Jesus Himself declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Me“. God has paved the way through His Son’s death, which is an eternal expression of love, not narrow-mindedness.
Jesus: The Sympathetic and Tempted Savior
The third reason to go to Jesus is that He sympathizes with all of our needs.
Tempted in All Things
To fulfill His role as a merciful and faithful High Priest, Jesus had to be made like us (His brethren) in all things—He was both God and man.
- Shared Experience: The Scripture states that we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
- Understanding Our Feelings: Jesus was tempted throughout His life, from His youth to the cross. He understands feelings of rejection, sorrow (like at Lazarus’ tomb), loneliness, pain, and fear.
- Understanding Guilt: Though He never sinned, Jesus knows exactly what guilt feels like because He took upon Himself the guilt of all our sin and the sin of the whole world.
- No Excuses: Because Jesus was tempted in all points, we have no excuse to say, “Jesus, You don’t understand what I’m going through”. He wants us to understand that He understands us.
Drawing Near: How to Receive Help and Mercy
Since Jesus perfectly knows us, has paid the price for our sins, and sympathizes with our struggles, He invites us to approach God’s throne.
The Throne of Grace
We are commanded to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- The Right Way to Approach: The throne we approach is one of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness—not judgment or condemnation. We must come Jesus’s way: by the blood of Jesus.
- Confidence, Not Irreverence: We are to come boldly and confidently because we have a right to approach God through the blood of Christ. However, this does not mean coming irreverently; we must maintain a spirit of submission and humility, recognizing God’s holiness.
- Overcoming Pride: The main obstacle preventing believers from seeking God through the Word and prayer is pride—the belief that “I don’t need it” or a refusal to lay down cherished sin.
- Mercy and Grace: When we come to the throne, we find:
- Mercy: God is not giving us what we deserve (casting us out).
- Grace: He gives us what we do not deserve.