Positions and Promises

A few weeks ago, I sat across my friend at lunch and shared with her how weary I’ve been feeling and that I’m struggling to bring that before The Lord. She then asked, “How do you think the Lord is viewing you?” I started crying, knowing that even though I know in my head how He views me, in my heart I believed that He was annoyed with me for always coming to Him with the same struggles. For that reason, I didn’t feel the freedom or desire to come before Him.

I constantly go back to Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need”, and although I believe it to be true, I often find myself not living in light of that. Not approaching The Lord confidently. Not believing that His throne is a throne of grace. If it’s in my own confidence, what I’ve done or haven’t done, of course I won’t be able to approach it with confidence! I’m broken, I waver and, I need help. The confidence that this verse is talking about comes from somewhere else.

It starts with, “Let us then” which implies there is something before this that is important to moving towards God’s throne of grace with confidence. It’s quite beautiful, clear, and altogether profound. It says,

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15)

This is the great exchange. Jesus did for us what we couldn’t do, lived a perfect, sinless life and paying this wage of death that we deserved. He made a way for us to finally be in a right relationship with God – just the way that it started and how we were created to be.

So then we are able to go boldly before Him. He says He’ll lead us beside quiet waters. In this case for me, he was inviting me to come to him, where I’ll find rest and learn to live lightly and freely.

The Lord is continually inviting me to come to Him, and He’s inviting you to come to Him, too. I sense the invitation as I struggle to come before the Lord – in my brokenness, my hopes, and my questions. I believe that one of the reasons I struggle to come before the Lord is because I forget my position before Him. My position as a daughter of The King is this:

Covered in grace (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Fully loved and fully known (Psalm 139)

Cherished and made new (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A sweet aroma before The Lord (2 Corinthians 2:15)

Redeemed (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Worth it (Romans 5:8)

Victorious through Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Free (Galatians 5:1)

Sisters, our position is only because of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 it says, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (emphasis added and is from Jeremiah 9:23-24).

In our brokenness, joy, pain, confusion, expectations, hope, and anything else, we can approach God because of Jesus, our great high priest. The one who went through the greatest pain and temptations, yet lived perfectly. We are covered completely by Jesus, and Him alone.

We can boldly praise Him, ask questions (John 18:21), present our concerns, wrestle with Him. And when words fall short, we can come boldly and sit at His feet, to just be in His presence and listen. Either way- we’re invited to come. Invited to the throne of grace by a God who sees, hears, and is for us.