3rd April 2024
What a friend we have in Jesus
This is the first in a series of studies on the subject of prayer.
‘I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.’
John 15:15 (NIVUK)
Joseph Scriven was born in 1819 and at the age of 25, he was engaged to be married. The night before the wedding his fiancé died in a tragic drowning accident. Heartbroken, Joseph left Ireland to start a new life in Canada. While there he again became engaged but the person he was due to marry fell ill with pneumonia and died before the wedding could take place.
Joseph never married but his faith in God remained as he joined the Plymouth Brethren and became a Baptist preacher. 1
The one thing Joseph Scriven is most remembered for is the words of a poem he sent from Canada to his ill mother back in Ireland. After the terrible pain and anguish he had experienced in his own life, he wrote:
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.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there. 2
I can’t begin to imagine the grief Joseph experienced when he lost two fiancés before he could get married, but Jesus can. He lived on earth as a man and understands our feelings. More than anyone he knew what it was to be lonely: he was familiar with sorrow and suffering, he experienced the pain of rejection and cruelty.
As followers of Jesus, we are not insulated from the tragedies of this world, just as he was not. God has not promised that severe trials will skip over our house on the way to an unbelieving neighbour. But God does promise that as our friend, Jesus will come alongside us, and give us the strength, comfort, courage, and peace of mind to handle all that this world and life can throw at us.
We don’t have to bear any pain alone. Take it to the Lord in prayer, for what a friend we have in Jesus.
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you that Jesus is our companion and friend, who will never leave nor forsake us. In the trials we experience remind us again that in him we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Barry Robinson
1 Joseph M. Scriven – Wikipedia
2 What a Friend We Have in Jesus > Lyrics | Joseph M. Scriven (timelesstruths.org)
About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands, and Wales
Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA
Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm
Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church