Bailey Shepard is a Ministry Assistant in Student Ministry at Liberty Live Church in Hampton Roads, VA. She is passionate about discipleship and leading up the next generation of girls, especially girls in middle and high school. She also specifically loves helping young girls and women navigate through depression, anxiety, and other mental health needs through scripture and prayer.
I have been studying the Book of Hebrews with a small group of high school girls recently. Even as their leader, God always uses these teachings to grow my faith and knowledge as well. Something that I have always struggled with, even as an adult, is God’s grace. Receiving something that I most certainly do not deserve feels wrong. We came across the popular verses of Hebrews 4:15-16, which say: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” CSB
Firstly, we can approach His throne of grace because we know that, not only does He know what we are going through, but He has lived it. The battle belongs to Him, and He has already fought and won it. I was talking with a student recently who asked me that if God loved her, then why would He allow her to go through so much hurt and so many trials? Our fallen world is the most broken it has ever been. We are chronically weak, but praise God that our hope is the Lord’s, and it is freely given to us!
Jesus was without sin, but even He was not without temptation. The battles He fought for us here on this earth will impact us for the rest of our lives and for generations and generations to follow! Because He was fully God while being fully man, He could have asked God to take Him out of the situation of having to be crucified on a cross, but He didn’t. He didn’t give into that temptation. Because of this, we do not have to give up either! Every trial that we face can refine us and draw us closer to Jesus. We just have to allow Him to do that.
Secondly, we can approach His throne with boldness because He freely gives us mercy and grace. I know I cannot be the only one who thinks that I need to show up as my best version of myself to the Lord. I want Him to have the best version of me because He’s so good and so deserving of everything I have to offer and more. But the reality is that He doesn’t need that. He needs our boldness. He desires our courageous exclamation of our need for Him. A few years ago, I went through some really tough trials. Someone encouraged me to simply tell God exactly how I felt. He doesn’t need our sugarcoated, “churchy” words. He tells us in His Word that He already knows our thoughts and hearts. His perfection far makes up for our imperfections. Let us find freedom in that! He is capable of meeting our every need, so let Him. Ask Him, with boldness! Approach His throne of grace with the boldness of knowing who He is!
