Boldly to the Throne

Picture a waiting room outside an office. A person sits there going over what they plan to say. They decide which parts are proper to bring up, and they edit the desperation out of the middle.

That is the room most people pray from, and Hebrews was written to move you out of it. It gives the place you come to a name, "the throne of grace," and if you have only ever waited outside offices, that name sounds like a contradiction. A throne means the authority is real and the decision is final. Grace means His attitude toward you was settled before you were ever shown in. So you are not coming to find out whether you will be welcome.

The word "boldly" has more to do with belonging than with bravery. In Greek it meant the right to speak freely, the way a citizen could speak up in the public meeting because he belonged there. That is very different from the nervous courage it takes to knock on a stranger's door. The reason this freedom is yours is in the verse just before: "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." The One you come to does not need to be told what this is like.

Then comes the offer, in two halves that people usually squash into one. There is "mercy," for what has already gone wrong. And there is "grace to help in time of need." The Greek phrase behind "time of need" means well-timed, so this is help that arrives at the right hour, more than help in general.

So what would your unedited prayer sound like? It is probably not the tidy request. It is the one with the number in it, or the name, the thing you have been praying around for months without ever praying about. Say that one to Him today. You are already welcome at His throne, and He knows what this is like.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 315 is The Place He Slept (Genesis 28:16).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna