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.

Devotion based on Hebrews 4:16

I think we’ve all had that embarrassing moment when for whatever reason you couldn’t afford something. Maybe you were standing in line at Walmart when the cashier announced the total; you were thumbing through the cash in your wallet only to discover you were a little light. Or maybe it was a waiter coming back to you at a restaurant telling you your card has been declined. Whenever this happens, there is always panic and a scramble. We are looking for another payment method or need to ask someone if they can lend us money or try to put something back.

How should we approach God when he says that the payment to enter his perfect presence is to be perfect ourselves? We can look through our own life and hope to find enough perfection, but we will always end up a little light. We can scramble and quickly try to clean up our act some. We can panic and despair that there is no way we can be saved.

Or we can turn to Jesus.

Jesus has made the payment with his perfect life. He is the payment for our sins. Through faith, God credits us with the perfect life of Jesus so that we can have what is needed to enter his perfect presence. Jesus paid for all our sins and the sins of the entire world. For this reason, we can be sure that our debt is paid and that God forgives us all our sins.

Though we did not have enough ourselves, we have received grace and mercy because of Jesus. Therefore, we approach God’s throne of grace in faith and prayer with full confidence. There is no panic or embarrassment. There is no doubt about how God feels about us. God hears us and loves us because what we owe has been paid.

We are confident before God because of Jesus.

Prayer:

Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.