Who do you turn to during difficult times? Where do you run when the earth shakes? Where do you sail when the storms blow?
A few days ago at a pastor’s retreat, we sang several songs about the love and faithfulness of God. Ministry is all about relationships, and many of those relationships bring more pain than they do joy.
But there is one relationship we can always rely on to provide us hope, comfort, and encouragement, and that relationship is so beautifully expressed by Joseph Scriven in the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
This was one of our last songs at the retreat, and before we sang it, our song leader shared the story behind the well-known hymn.
Born in 1819 in Ireland, Joseph Scriven was known as a hard-working, generous man. He loved serving others. He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin at the age of 24, and in 1844 he had plans to get married.
The night before his wedding, however, tragedy struck, and his fiance accidentally drowned. A year later, Scriven left Ireland and settled in Ontario, Canada.
There he met a woman named Eliza Rice, and they were engaged to be married. But a few weeks before the wedding, Miss Rice came down with an illness that no one could diagnose, and shortly thereafter she too died.
Scriven decided to sell his possessions and live a life of celibacy, finding comfort in the only Friend who would never leave him.
A few years later, Scriven heard that his mother was sick, but he did not have the means necessary to make the trip back home to care for her.
So he wrote her a letter containing these words: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.”
It is not known exactly how the words ended up in print, but somehow someone got hold of the words and had them published.
Scriven himself died at age 66 when he drowned in a lake during a time of deep depression in his life.
Even when we follow God and trust him, we will experience trials. We will have our share of “sins and griefs” that are an inevitable result of living in a fallen world.
But what an amazing friend we have in Jesus.
I need this reminder every day.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, 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 Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.