Coming Boldly After You Have Failed

Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16, WEB)

The writer of Hebrews urges us to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The confidence is what catches me, because a man who has just fallen feels anything but confident before God. Everything in him says to keep his distance until the shame has worn off.

He wants to hide, to clean himself up first, to wait until he has strung together a few good days before he dares to pray. It feels more honest somehow, more respectful, to stay away until he is less of a mess. Hebrews tells him to come now, as he is, with boldness, because the throne he approaches is a throne of grace and not of condemnation. The help is offered precisely in the time of need, which means in the moment of weakness and before you have manufactured some strength of your own to bring along. If you wait until you deserve to come, you will never come, and that is exactly the trap the enemy is happy to keep you in.

If you have been staying away from God out of shame, hear the invitation again, because it has not been withdrawn. He is not waiting behind that throne with folded arms, tallying how long it has been and how badly you have done. He is holding out mercy for a man who will just come. Draw near tonight, without the speech you think you owe him and without the good record you cannot produce, and ask for the grace he has promised to hand over at exactly this kind of moment. The worst night is the right night to draw near, because a throne of grace is built for men in need of it.