Our Sympathetic Saviour

The heart and mind and will of our Lord has been moulded - shall we not say forged? - in the furnace of temptation and suffering. And it was in virtue of what he had learned in that experience of temptation and suffering that he was able, at the climactic point fixed by the arrangements of infallible wisdom and everlasting love, to be obedient unto death, even the death on a cross. It was only as having learned obedience in the path of inerrant and sinless discharge of the Father's will that his heart and mind and will were framed to the point of being able freely and voluntarily to yield up his life in death upon the accursed tree." 

John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied

Murray beautifully points out in explaining Hebrews 2:10-18 and 5:8-10, that as Jesus walked this earth in obedience to His father, withstanding temptations, He became more aware of in fact why He was called to die. In other words, when He saw our sinful state first hand, He embraced the call to the cross.
As Jesus walked this earth, He saw the temptations and suffering we face and the many sins we fall into and it was His perfect obedience in the midst of this that made Him the "all-sufficient and perfect Saviour."

Immanent in Suffering

Recently, in talking with some pastor friends about how to care for people in suffering. Particularly, we were discussing from a book one of them was reading about how to appropriately comfort people who are suffering with God's sovereignty and providence.
Though I agree that both of those provide comfort to those struggling and in trials, I can't explain it any other way other than saying it was perhaps a revelation of knowledge in the moment that the great help and support to the suffering saints around us first is God's immanence.
Yes it is comforting to know that God is in control and that all things happen for a reason and we can get to those things, but to know that God walks with us through every pain and in fact as Christians we can know that God walks in us by His diving presence of the Holy Spirit.
His promise to not leave us or forsake us [Deut. 31:6 and Heb. 13:5] is a great promise to cling to when cares, sins and pain can sometimes leave us wondering where God is in the midst of it all.
If you are struggling today, I pray this truth pours grace and help into your life and if we know of those around us in the midst of agony and hurt, may God use us to remind them of our immanent God.

The Remedy of Hope

"Neighbors ought to tell neighbors, if they have found an unfailing remedy in time of plague. Christians out to tell others that they have found medicine for their souls, if they see them ignorant and dying for want of it." JC Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark - from Mark 4:21-25

No matter how hard this life gets, no matter what trials we face, those who have come to trust in the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection have the sure hope of heaven that awaits them. This is the only real medicine for the soul because everything in this life will leave us empty in the end. Jobs, money and even earthly relationships will let us down. But to know that one day, we can stand face to face with the one who has purchased the blessing of eternal life, receiving bodies that never get sick and never die and to know that we can hope and trust in that day as a certain promise is news that can revive us in the midst of every struggle in this life.
Let us then listen and be aware of how and where we can administer this remedy to those around us. If I love those around me, sharing this medicine will be a demonstration of that love.