dusting off the hymnal: What a Friend We Have in Jesus

The disciples knew Jesus as a friend before they knew Him as a Savior. Perhaps they felt comfort in confiding in Him when troubles arose. Perhaps He had a really good sense of humor that made them feel comfortable. Perhaps He was a person they could call when anything happened; whether they couldn't lift something by themselves or they had a deep philosophical question to ask Him, he was there. I often think that we Christians today are walking with a Jesus we think of as a fictional superhero rather than walking with the Jesus that walked, ate, laughed, and prayed with the disciples. This might be the reason why this song is so touching to me alongside my current walk with the Lord. The writer of this hymn, Joseph Scriven, actually wasn't writing a hymn. At the time, his mother was sick and dying in his home country of Ireland as he was living in Canada. To comfort her until he could be with her, he wrote her a letter titled 'Pray Without Ceasing'. 

Scriven's original manuscript, from Canadian Singers and their Songs, 1919. Courtesy Internet Archive.

When I read this hymn, a few words pop out to me.
The first being the line that reads: 
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
Sometimes as lovers and followers of Jesus, we forget the privilege we have of the presence and ear of our Savior. Like I said earlier, the disciples were brothers and friends with Jesus before they would even know Jesus as a Savior. What does this mean? To me, it means that the Lord seeks our friendship and relationship with Him for our salvation. It's easy to forget that we have such a loving friend as a Savior. Let's not forget that Christianity is less of a 'religion' and more of a relationship.
The next thing that pops out to me is this stanza: 
Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer
Psalms 103:1-5 reads,
"Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, how satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Why is it sometimes easy to forget the friendship we have in Jesus? Within the goodness that He provides it may seem too good to be true, that we have a Savior who forgives us and heals as and redeems us and calls us friend. To be honest, it is too good to be true. That's the beauty of the Lord. His promises are not only true but they exceed in blessings. Later on in the psalm it says "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." It's kind of funny to think that the Lord remembers that our inevitable sinfulness is within us, and He takes it into consideration. It's almost like we both need reminders for our relationship to function! 
As Thomas Scriven needed to remind his mother of the companionship that lies in the Lord's presence, we daily must remember that we not only have a Savior that died for us but we have a Savior that wants to be friends with us. 
My prayer for you is this: 
May we never forget the companionship that lies in our relationship with the Lord.
May we never forget that our God loves us for who we are, even in our sinfulness.
May we never forget that we have a Savior that seeks our friendship and relationships, and
let us never forget that the best friend we can have is not only our friend, but our Redeemer.