Pastor’s Thoughts

 

Joseph Scriven pinned these words in the first verse of “What a Friend”.

What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer!

I have always sung those lyrics in view of my own personal struggles as a believer. I’ve wondered how many failures and how much frustration could have been avoided if I would have spent more time praying before I ventured forward in my life.

The words to the song have also applied to my personal relationships with believers and non believers alike. It is so easy to say or do things wrong and upset others, when in fact we had no intention of even being controversial. We sometimes react to things while controlled by emotion rather than the Holy Spirit and our anger drives a wedge deep into our relationship. I never enjoyed trying to remove a wedge that was stuck in wood, it is hard work. The same is true of a wedge in a relationship. If only I would have prayed and let God have His way to begin with.

I could share many other avenues of thought in which have caused me to forfeit peace that could have been mine if I would have simply spent more time in prayer. But let me share a different line of thought that I recently experienced while singing this great old hymn. It says, “What a friend we have in Jesus,” not that I have in Jesus. That got your pastor thinking about the congregation’s sins, griefs, pain, and loss of peace in which we have experienced because we too have at times venture forward without tarrying before God in prayer.