Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment]…”
Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we have the privilege to approach God as our loving Father—without fear or trembling. We can have confidence when coming before God, knowing that He hears us and listens intently to us and that He shows mercy to us.
He doesn’t hold our past mistakes against us but looks upon us with love and delight. He takes delight in our prayers because we are expressing our reliance on Him instead of relying on ourselves. He wants us to come before His throne of grace with faith and confident trust that He is the only one who can help us. We can have that confidence to receive mercy for our failures and our shortcomings and to also find His amazing grace to help us in our time of need and desperation.
He wants to extend grace towards us to help us in our time of need. He will not withhold His help from us as Psalm 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord bestows grace and favor and honor; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly”.
He welcomes us when we come to Him. He’s not like an earthly king, who stands aloof from us with pomp and protocol, but He is our loving Father who stands with arms wide open welcoming His precious child as we enter His presence and approach Him. He not only welcomes us, but He looks forward to these moments of tender intimacy. And because of this, we have confidence before Him as we stand in faith—we just need to keep standing in faith and not give up!
There are those times, though, when God seems to hold out a little to stretch our faith, but we can have confident trust and expectant hope that the answer will come at just the right moment. We must ‘confidently’ wait for the Lord and have confident expectation that the Lord will move on our behalf—in His perfect timing. When we pray—coming before His throne of grace—with whatever burdens us, we can ‘expect’ the Lord to hear us and that we will ‘receive’ what we have requested.
