Throne of Grace

 May 9, 2022

When I was a young man, I memorized Hebrews 4:16—“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” This verse was a call to prayer, but I didn’t understand it then as I do now. I thought of these words as calling me to prayer when faced with imminent temptations, rather than as a preparatory call to prayer prior to the onset of temptation. No wonder I stumbled so many times! The time for a soldier to learn to handle his weapon isn’t the hour before the battle. Once the struggle is on, it’s often too late for prayer.

My other mistake years ago was divorcing this call and it’s accompanying promise from what had been said just prior to these words. The entire context is long and involved, but the immediate context is as follows:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” —Hebrews 4:12-16 KJV

First, there is the Word of God. Prayer divorced from the Word of God is shorn of its power, just as surely as Samson was shorn of his power when he lost his hair. Prayer isn’t like a vending machine—put in the money and out pops the answer—it is the means by which we engage the Scriptures and open ourselves to receive what God wants to say and do. Prayer is a way of standing naked before God, stripped of our pretensions and self-righteousness, our hands empty and uplifted, our hearts bare before the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.

Prayer is coming before the Sinless One with our sins and shortcomings, not because we deserve to be in his presence, but solely because having offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins, he has invited us. On this basis, and this basis only, we find mercy and grace to help in time of need.