Hebrews 4:16

Have you ever met someone and felt an immediate and unexplained kinship with them? The connection between you and your new friend provides the opportunity to relate in unique ways. 

About a decade ago, I was attending a fairly large church and looking for a small group Bible study to become involved with. The church had an online catalog of all the small groups that met and I chose to visit one that coincided with my demographics - single and thirty-something. 

Within minutes of meeting the existing members of the Bible study group, it felt as if we had known each other for years. We talked about ourselves and eventually our conversation turned to where we had grown up and gone to school. We discovered that two of us had attended the same high school - I was just a few years younger. While we didn't know each other back in the day, we realized that we had a few mutual friends. Our instant familiarity now made sense. 

There's something special about the people that you grow up with - even if you don't know them at the time. You share common experiences, mutual friends, and an general understanding of the community that helped shaped you as an individual. 

For my friends and I, we were able to share more deeply, quickly and our friendships are still some of the most important more than 10 years later. 

Hebrews 4:16 starts off with "Let us THEN approach the throne of grace with confidence..." What allows us to do this? What's the THEN there for? We need to back up and read verses 14 and 15 to be clued in. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence, because the one who sits on the throne is able to sympathize with weaknesses because He had been tempted in every way, we are, yet was without sin. 

Jesus is familiar with what it's like to live on this earth with all of it's guts and glory because He's done it Himself. Jesus is not a high priest who is oblivious to our situations. Our confidence comes from the knowing that He can relate to us. The mercy and grace that we are offered is because Jesus first walked in our shoes. He knows what we need, when we need it, how we need it and why it's needed. 

What an incredible gift this is to us! To know that our Savior is approachable because He can relate to our needs is such a comfort. 

So let this be your reminder that there is nothing too big or too small for you to bring before the Son of God. You will find all that you need to sustain you. Have confidence in this Good News.