Can a Perfect Savior Understand What It’s Like to Struggle?

I thought I was at the peak of my mission—I was training a new missionary, preparing for a baptism, and getting the hang of the whole missionary thing. I felt so happy.

But I didn’t recognize the stress and anxiety building up inside me.

I was lying down to sleep one night when I began spiraling into the second panic attack I’d ever had in my entire life—the first having occurred nine years previously. Nine years!

Why, after only a small period of anxiety as a child, was it suddenly resurfacing now?

I stubbornly tried to continue my mission as normal, thinking I could fix my own problems.

While I wrestled with my mental health, someone shared with me an insight they had while reading about the Savior’s experience in Gethsemane.

Jesus said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” And then the Savior prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:38–39).

Have you ever felt the heaviness of your own sorrow? Have you ever asked God, “Is there another way?”

In perfect willingness, perfect obedience, and perfect love, our Redeemer accepted the will of the Father. He was perfect because He was sinless, but He still felt pain, sorrow, and loneliness.

After all, He descended below all things—so He could lift us up.

President Jeffrey R. Holland (1940–2025), President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, taught, “Jesus was ‘a man of sorrows’ [Isaiah 53:3], the scriptures say. He experienced sadness, fatigue, disappointment, and excruciating loneliness. In these and in all times, Jesus’s love faileth not, and neither does His Father’s.”

Knowing that Christ faced hard things reminds me that He understands heartache, depression, exhaustion, disappointment, anxiety, and loneliness more than anyone.

It was He who wept at the death of Lazarus (see John 11:33–36). And it was He who asked as He was dying on the cross, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).

But Jesus Christ also knows joy, love, compassion, mercy, and peace more than anyone. Because He is perfect. Thus, He knows perfectly how we feel.

President Holland testified: “One of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Realizing that Jesus Christ perfectly understood what I was feeling as I struggled with anxiety, I finally allowed Him to help me carry my burdens.

My anxiety didn’t suddenly go away. I still had hard days. But being close to Christ gave me enduring joy anyway because I knew He was right there with me, saying, “I know. I know perfectly how you feel.”

During this experience, Christ became my closest confidant.

I think that sometimes we’re prone to thinking that Christ’s perfection means that He is far away and unreachable, that His great acts and miraculous life make Him seem so far from us ordinary, imperfect, prideful beings. But He is never closer to us than when we are facing our toughest battles, our worst sorrows, and our most harrowing struggles.

This Easter season, we can remember that Jesus Christ knows exactly what it’s like to struggle because He was perfect—the only person who could feel our pain and carry our burdens.

So, when you struggle, turn to Him. He understands perfectly.