I Was Afraid to Come At Him Bold

I worked with a young lady who lived in a heavily Latino inner-city area.

She said to me: "Are you coming at me bold?!"

What she meant was "Are you trying to start a fight?"

She was joking with me, of course, and it was really funny.

Every time we see each other, she would say to me: "Come at me bold!"

Then I remembered an exhortation from the Bible:

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4: 16)

God invites us to come at Him bold, to ask for His help in our times of need.

Yet whenever I felt afraid or was angry (or struggling with some sin), the last thing that  I wanted to do was come to God boldly.

How can anyone of us come to God boldly if we still think that we owe Him something?

As long as I was convinced that I had to work these Twelve Steps, as long as I was operating according to this life that everything depending on me in some way, then I was not going to go to God for anything.

All my life, people had been telling me what I needed to do.

I was getting this mixed message all the time, especially this hateful piece of fraud:

"God helps those who help themselves."

If we could help ourselves, then we would not help in the first place!

No, God comes to us when we were half-dead, with no hope, and gives us His hope.

If we are drowning, He does not throw us a "How to swim" manual, but holds us and carries us to shore.

In fact, He cares for us, and He invites us to cast ALL our cares on Him (1 Peter 5: 6-7)

I have struggled with this mixed message all of my life. Now that I know that I have His Life .  .  .

 

-- That I have your Life, dear Jesus --

 

 

Then I know that I can trust Him with all things.

 

I read this passage in Psalm 34:

 

 

"4I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." (Psalm 34: 4)

 

 

We come to Him when we have our fears.

 

We should not be trying to deal with our fears on our own, then come to God.

 

Obviously, David had fears, then he came to God, then God delivered him from ALL his fears.

 

The issue in the Body of Christ has placed too much on our doing, and not His doing.

 

We  do not believe that we are dead in ourselves. We still think that we can do some things (or something), when God invites us to receive all things from Him:

 

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)

 

and

 

"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8: 31-34)

 

Do we believe what the Bible says, or don't we?

 

If we struggle to believe, we can rest in the truth that He supplies us His faith (Mark 9: 24):

 

"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)

 

Today, I am not afraid to come at Him bold, because I am nothing apart from Him, and either I rest in His boldness, or I am left with my weakness.

 

I prefer His strength!