He never comes empty handed and he has never once noticed.
Every single time he prays there is an item. A person, a decision, a worry, a thing to confess, a thing to be grateful for. Something on the agenda.
And I want to be fair to him because those are all good items, and a man who prays for people is not doing anything wrong.
But watch the shape of it over eleven years.
He has never begun a prayer without knowing what it was for. There has never been a session with no purpose in it. If he sits down and finds he has nothing to bring, he gets up again, because he feels faintly ridiculous being there with no business.
He would not say he thinks he needs a reason. He would say he is not one for sitting about.
And what it has produced, without anybody intending it, is a relationship conducted entirely in meetings. He has never once turned up to God the way you turn up at your mother's house on a Saturday with no reason and no plan and you both just get on with the afternoon.
He is fifty-two. It has been a good eleven years. It has all been business.
So let me ask you.
When did you last come to Him without a reason?
Confidence is about the walking in
There is an invitation in Hebrews that gets read as being about need, and it is, and there is something else in it that I want you to see.
The writer has just spent a passage on the fact that we have a high priest who has been through everything we have been through, and then he draws the conclusion.
Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.Hebrews 4:16
The word translated confidence is a word about speech and bearing. It carried the sense of being free to speak plainly, the way a citizen could in an assembly rather than the way a subject approaches a court.
Hebrews 4 tells you how to walk in rather than what to bring with you, and the Spirit who moved that writer put the emphasis on bearing rather than on business, so the reason you arrive with has never been the thing that gets you through the door. You are through it on His welcome and not on your agenda.
And notice the order in the sentence. Approach first, then receive.
The receiving is the consequence of the approaching. It is not the ticket for it.
Now, plainly, because I am fond of you and I am not going to be clever at you.
Your items are good. Do not stop bringing them. A man who prays for his family is doing something real and I would not take one of those mornings back.
What I am pointing at is that eleven years of good meetings is still eleven years of meetings.
Hebrews 4 puts confidence on the manner of approach rather than on the contents of the visit, and the Spirit has never once required a person to justify the call, which means the faintly ridiculous feeling that gets you up out of the chair has been standing between you and the only kind of visit you have never made.
You have been a colleague. You have not been a son on a Saturday.
Now the move, and it is a subtraction rather than an addition.
Go with nothing.
Not a list, not an item, not a person to pray for, not a thing to be grateful for. Deliberately empty handed, on purpose, once.
You will feel ridiculous. That feeling is the eleven-year habit objecting, and it is worth sitting through, because it is exactly the feeling that has got you out of the chair every previous time.
Hebrews 4 says approach with confidence and then receive, in that order, and the Spirit was in the invitation rather than in any agenda, so arriving with nothing has never been arriving improperly. You are welcome empty handed.
Eleven years of meetings. One Saturday afternoon.
Declare this over yourself
Say these where you can hear yourself. Know what holds them up. This authority is not yours by nature, it is Christ's, and in Christ it has been given to you, so you speak as one representing the King. And you speak under His will, never over it. However He answers, and in whatever way He comes, the outcome is His.
- Agenda, you are eleven years of good items and you were never the ticket. Hebrews 4 says approach with confidence and then receive, in that order, so the receiving was always the consequence and never the fare.
- Faintly ridiculous feeling that gets me up out of the chair, you are a habit objecting and you have cost me the only kind of visit I never make, and in the name of Jesus you are overruled. The Spirit was in that invitation and has never once asked me what the meeting was about.
- Lord, Hebrews 4 uses a word about bearing and plain speech, the way a citizen speaks rather than the way a subject approaches. I am going somewhere quiet today with nothing in my hands, and I have been a colleague for eleven years and I am coming as a son.
Hebrews 4:16
This message is free, and always will be. There is nothing to unlock, nothing to subscribe to, and nothing you owe for having received it.
