Word-in-My-Heart-Wednesday - Hebrews 4:15-16

It's the first Wednesday of the month and time for a new Bible verse to memorize. For those of you who did not catch the first of these posts, Word-in-My-Heart-Wednesday works as follows: On the first and third Wednesdays of the month the scrolling verse at the top of the page will be changed.

Visit this blog on a daily basis to memorize the current verse. When a new verse is posted, the old verse will be archived and available on the left sidebar under "w-i-m-h-w". Click on it and it will pop up in a scrolling text for your review. Review is the key to retaining what you have memorized. It takes only a few minutes daily to review the verses you have committed to memory.

The new verse for Word-in-My-Heart-Wednesday is Hebrews 4:15-16. "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

These verses are packed with the goodness, kindness, mercy, grace and sovereignty of God. First of all, we have a priest. Our priest, the Lord Jesus Christ is not just any priest. Verse 14 of this same chapter in Hebrews describes Him as our "great high priest". He is not just a high priest as we find in the Old Testament. No, our priest is "great". He alone, by His own blood, is able to make perfect those who draw near.

Our great high priest sympathizes with us. He, being sinless, experienced sin is a way that we never will since we are already defiled by sin. His temptations were much more intense than ours and yet He did not sin. He therefore knows how to sympathize with us and enable us to overcome the enemy's onslaught.

Then there is the throne of grace that we are to come near to with boldness. Charles Spurgeon says that the throne of grace is:

...to be approached with devout joyfulness. If I find myself favoured by divine grace to stand amongst those favoured ones who frequent His courts, shall I not feel glad? I might have been in His prison, but I am before His throne. I might have been driven from His presence for ever, but I am permitted to come near to Him, even into his royal palace, into his secret chamber of gracious audience. Shall I not then be thankful? Shall not my thankfulness ascend into joy, and shall I not feel that I am honoured, that I am made the recipient of great favours when I am permitted to pray?

Wherefore is thy countenance sad, O suppliant, when thou standest before the throne of grace? If thou wert before the throne of justice to be condemned for thine iniquities, thy hands might well be on thy loins; but now that thou art favoured to come before the King in His silken robes of love, let thy face shine with sacred delight. If thy sorrows be heavy, tell them unto Him, for He can assuage them; if thy sins be multiplied, confess them, for He can forgive them. O, ye courtiers, in the halls of such a monarch, be ye exceeding glad, and mingle praises with your prayers.

May we do just that as we commit this precious truth to memory. And may the thought of our great high priest cause us to journey upward into His throne room of grace and mercy.