Day 3028 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Hebrews 4:16 NIV

To watch a world refuse to step through a door left wide open unto all the goodness one could possibly imagine is an entirely heartbreaking and mind-blowing scene to behold.

That is, until you realize that you've done the very same in your own life.

One of humanity’s most jarring attributes is without question this tendency to carry such a haughty outlook of ourselves that we’ve not the ability to admit that we often need help to shake off all that we’ve destroyed in our lives. Our general temperament is one of vanity and pride, and due to this condition, we find hearts racing away from healing toward more harm than they really desire, simply because they desire not to temper their behavior and seek refinement through humility.

No, we’d rather crash into the wall than have to acknowledge our many failures and flaws, let alone slow down enough to actively repent of them and embrace the grace we know we need before the grave.

This reality is one that all of us in common know full well. All of us have indeed been invited into kinship with Christ and promised untold benevolence once in His presence. But by a disaster of our own design, we've allowed ourselves to consider more highly our current fallen standing rather than the undeserved place where we've been asked to come and kneel. We’ve chosen to hold fast to where we are knowing what it would require to move beyond this manmade barricade. We’ve slapped away the hand that He extended to save us from ourselves.

And as a result, Christ has been relegated a backseat seated behind this impossible mix of arrogance and shame that keeps us from seeing that He's truly our only hope.

Indeed, our awareness of our fallen nature's undeserving dishevelment has caused us to stand outside of His offering of a place at His table, a place saved specifically for each of us. And on these outskirts of His extraordinary grace, we’re left to scrape by on the meager crumbs of hope that fall far enough into our shadows that we can grab them without being seen. And as we don't want to be seen for who we've become, we've lost sight of the fact that His own Word given to speak of His own promise, of His own depiction and description of His mission points to His undoubtable piety.

We've let go that in Scripture which teaches us that He didn't come to help those who needn't help, but those who so clearly couldn't help but ignore the fact that they needed healing beyond mere happy thoughts and hopeful assumptions.

I surmise the predicament is found in yet what proves another impossible combination of opposing forces found only in a fallen creation. And that is our own unique ability to be both entirely fearful and yet able to claim courage. Yes, we put on this rugged exterior that we think bolsters our image just strongly enough that it conceals the fact that beneath that veneer we remain fully aware of just how broken and insignificant we really are.

That's the hassle of reality, it doesn't bend just because we'd really like it out of our way. Instead, reality stands often more resolute than our resolve to refuse it. A great many attempts have been given and ultimately thwarted to sidestep the harsher realities of our reality. Humanity has long tried to pretend that there was no problem in a life given over to personal preference and sinful depravity. And yet, again, guilt doesn't go just because we don't want it around.

It only remains billowing below the surface, temporarily out of sight, but never fully out of mind. And thus, our awareness of our being fully undeserving of His mercy keeps us ashamed just enough to continue opting for the option of trying to hide rather than humbly accepting the invitation to come and be healed. Because our arrogance cannot abide by our shame, and when given the choice, we've all chosen to listen to the ego telling us we don't need Him as opposed to the hearts barely beating yet begging for us to welcome Him in.

I reckon one of our main objections to this calling found here in Hebrews is that we know we’ve nothing in which to be confident. Having lived our lives and carried the scars left by our failures to live them well, how can confidence be possible? How can we come near Him in confidence when we know He’s seen all we’ve tried so hard to keep hidden?

To approach His throne in confidence seems a mite ill-advised to minds having long been distorted by sin's many deceptions. We're so well aware, maybe not on the surface but definitely deep down, that our lives have been lived in opposition to all that He's commanded. We know all the mistakes we've made, at least the worst of the worst that left scars we can't help but see every time we see ourselves. We know all the roads we've wandered and all we lost along them.

And so to approach His throne in search of grace makes sense, as we need it so clearly. But to do so with confidence seems altogether a strange if not impossible request.

How can we approach Him with confidence when we're so well aware that our confidence is among the many attributes surrendered somewhere along the many dead-end roads we've walked? How can we confidently ask Him for what we fully know we fully don't deserve? How can we dare enter the presence of the One our sinful choices happily tossed in a tomb just to get Him out of the way of our continued enthrallment with all things egregious?

Personally speaking, confidence has long been something all but missing in my life. I've had a great deal of evidence found that shows clearly that I've fallen well short of being confident. In fact, for a large portion of my life my confidence was kept impossible due to the disapproval I've felt inside as a result of who I've been. Knowing the many failures I've successfully chosen and accepted all throughout my time thus far, I've just found little reason to be confident in myself.

And there's the problem.

This confidence we're asked here to have isn't a confidence in ourselves. It's not a requirement of this tenacity that allows us to dare look in the eyes of the One we've rejected and refused and denied and chosen to doubt. The confidence asked of us here is a confidence not in us, but in Him. It's to approach His throne of grace confident that grace is exactly what we'll find, even though we cannot possibly deserve it being given once we get there.

I think that's what humanity en masse misunderstands about this Gospel of God's great grace. So many are so lost within themselves and the sins that remain their driving force in life that they are of such awareness of just how wrongly they've treated the One whose always been only good to us. And that shame, as I contend it's simply impossible to turn off or escape, combined with the arrogance that demands we keep living to please ourselves without a care or concern keeps humanity running away from the arms waiting to welcome them.

But, it's a long road, running away. A person can do it for their whole life. If we insist, God will let us evade Him for all eternity. But the reality of that road spent running away is that in order to run away, you have to both acknowledge who or what you're running from, and you sadly have to keep looking back over your shoulder to see how far you've gone and ensure you're not losing ground.

I think this idea's been so driven into us that we have to live our lives never once needing help, or at least never admitting that we need it, that we can't bring ourselves to accept it even when it's so freely and kindly given. So many would rather run right off the ledge than to admit they made the wrong turn that led them toward it. That's the danger in self-confidence. We can become so convinced that what we're doing is right that we'll become unable to see the destruction it's designing.

Truth be told, all of us need His grace. But that's why He gives it. All of us have no hope without His mercy. That's why He proves it's sufficient every single day. We're all in need of such salvation that it shouldn't be possible. Yet the cross says it's already finished. In fact, as Christ hung in our place, He himself said, "It is finished."

“It is finished.” Guess that means we just need to be finished with it ourselves.

You see, in His proclamation that sin is defeated, all that's behind is allowed to be left there. All the mistakes made on the many roads we tried before we found ourselves at the foot of the cross are able to remain relegated to the past so that they don't distract the present or destroy the future. He paid for that for us. Paid dearly in fact. And if we’ve not yet seen the results of His blood having been shed, it’s safe to say we’ve yet to learn to listen more intently to the message He speaks rather than the shouts of the reminders of who we've been saying we'll never be anything different.

I've heard a whole lot of the devil talking lately. Sleepless nights. Frustrated days. Ongoing hours spent recounting my many regrets. A chaotic cacophony of this chorus singing this relentless song of my broken past. And sadly, I've found myself listening too keenly to the lyrics of that broken record. But somehow, even through all that noise, I was reminded that doing so is a choice. We choose the messages we listen to in life. And while the lies may always speak loudest, far over His gentle whispers, it's not always the one with the power that speaks the loudest.

Sometimes we all just need reminded that He doesn't need to shout to prove Himself to be who He's always been as He's already said all that needs to be said. The entirety of Scripture recalls the tremendous downfall of this society still slipping deeper into the darkness of depravity. And yet, the entirety of Scripture also paints this portrait of a God so loving and kind that He offers forgiveness to those very same people who've played their part in all that’s falling apart.

And so, yet again, faith presents us with a choice only we can choose. We have to be ones who choose which side of God we find and when we find Him. Wrath or grace. Vengeance or mercy. Judgement or forgiveness. We deserve the former, He offers the latter. But an offer is only as good as the one who has to accept it. We have to accept it. And while there are an endless string of reasons why we shouldn't, why we can't, we need but one reason to try. And friends, He showed us that reason that’s so clearly powerful enough to blaze beyond our shame and accept His grace.

May we do so with confidence, not that we deserve it, but that He will give us that grace anyway. We can keep trying to avoid the truth that tells us how badly we need His kindness, but to keep running away from that open door leading us to all things good is a mistake too stupid to keep making. Now, we've proven ourselves to be quite idiotic at times. More often than not in fact.

But if we can't see how badly we need His help then we'll be left fighting through forever without it. And friends, that's not something He wants for us. So why settle for it? Why continue to have our lunch money stolen by this bully He’s already beaten? Why live the rest of our lives with our heads hung so low in shame that we know more the tops of our shoes than the story unfolding before us? Why wake up every remaining day, stepping into the downfall crumbling all around, without any hope to lean on as it all falls further?

We need His help to let go who we’ve been. We need His help to learn to be better than what we’ve become. We need His help to guide us through the torment and tumult that awaits up ahead in this place. We need His help to make it both through this part and to the next, because we’ve proven we’ll miss the way when doing it alone.

Please let Him help. Let Him heal. LET HIM IN! Not because you know He's going to like what He sees when He shows up and you’ve got to admit what you’ve done with the place, but because you trust Him to be the carpenter that can turn your mess of a life into a message of His goodness that may well inspire others to seek Him for themselves before all that’s broken becomes forever shattered.

He calls us to have courage. To have confidence. To come boldly to the table to which we know we’ve got no business sitting. To approach His presence with full assurance. Not in us nor our ability, but in Him and His proven provision. As the popular passage in 2 Corinthians reminds, His grace is sufficient, His mercy is plenty, His power is made perfect when shown in the overcoming of our weaknesses.

Yes, He is enough, and so all that remains is for us to decide when we've had enough of all that isn't Him. And amazingly, we’ll find that this confidence we’re asked to have awaits just beyond that decision to let all that’s fractured and flawed slip as scales off our hearts so we can give them more fully to the only One who can do anything with them. This is our time of need.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold