The Throne of Grace

It is so natural and human to rely on our own effort to solve our problems. The world has this saying “God helps those who help themselves”. I used to think that it was a quote from the bible but it is not. In stark contrast to this famous quote which incidentally is from Benjamin Franklin, the bible says in the book of Hebrews, “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].” (Hebrews 4:16 Amplified bible). Isn’t it wonderful to know that in our times of need, we can approach God boldly, without fear of rejection or unworthiness? What is even more comforting is that the throne of God is a throne of grace, not a throne of judgement or condemnation. I don’t have to score points with God just to obtain mercy and grace. The throne of grace here as defined by the Amplified Bible is the throne of God’s unmerited favour to us sinners.

Grace is the unmerited favour of God. Unmerited means I have not done and cannot do anything to earn it. It says here in this verse that we can find grace to help and this help is well-timed and comes just when we need it. Wow! Just knowing that I have God’s unmerited favour to help me at the time that is most appropriate sure lifts the burden of working for my own solutions off my puny shoulders! My part is to learn to rely completely on His grace, not on my own works. “But if it is by grace (His unmerited favor and graciousness), it is no longer conditioned on works or anything men have done. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace [it would be meaningless].”(Romans 11:6 Amplified bible)

Do you find that when we look to ourselves for a solution to the problem that we are facing, we become burdened with worries and stress? I guess this is because we do not know whether we are able to come up with the best solution because we do not have full knowledge of the situation and what will happen in the future. But praise God! Grace to help in time of trouble when we need it most can be found at His throne but do we look for this grace from God or do we look to others or ourselves for help?

Sometimes we can be so full of trying to provide the answers to a problem that we miss receiving from God. The story of Martha is a good example (Luke 10:38-42). She saw Jesus as the one “in need”; that He was hungry and took it upon herself to provide a solution, in her case, it was food. She was so busy with providing what she thought was the answer that she missed receiving from the Lord. In contrast, her sister, Mary, had the revelation that grace could be found in Jesus, that was why she sat at His feet, receiving from Him. Jesus said that “one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken from her.” (verse 42)

Have you chosen the good part?