If Only I Knew

Welcome Encouragement for Today Friends! I am delighted you came by for a visit and to hear encouraging news about waiting.

 

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zGjPX1SX4′]

 

Day 43

“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. 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.”
Hebrews 4:15-16

Praying is action. The writer of Hebrews outlines 3-step prayer plan of action.

Approach. How? With confidence.

Receive. What? Mercy.

Find. What? Grace.

Why? To help us in our time of need.

There it is black and white: approach, receive, and find help in our time of need. So why don’t we? Maybe we do, eventually. Maybe we make it the throne limping after the comforts of the world have let us down. I believe confidence is the key. We either have confidence in God or we don’t.

Why don’t we have confidence in God?

We allow our past disappointments overshadow the possibly of His mercy and grace helping. Could it be our experience with God is limited so our trust is also? Perhaps it ‘s not God we don’t have confidence in, but ourselves. Maybe we feel we have come to God too many times and used up all the mercy and grace He has for us.

Jeremiah the prophet was in need of some help.  He had warned God’s people about impending captivity by the Babylonians but no one would listen.  His people were going to suffer. He was heart sick and cried out to God.

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” Lamentations 3:19-21

The key word in Jeremiah’s lament is yet. He willingly transitioned his thinking to remember something that would bring him hope. In the next verses he tells what gives him hope. He recalls God’s faithfulness, great love, and compassion. (Lamentations 3:19-24)

We can approach the throne of grace to receive His mercy and grace in our time of need when we recall what we know. And if for some reason we don’t have this experiential knowledge of God in our life (His faithfulness, great love, and compassion) then approach His throne with what little we have and trust what we can’t see.

Whether we leap or limp to God’s throne, His perfect, sure, and certain help is exactly what we need in our time of trouble.