How?

Eph.3:¹¹ “This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence” [with emphasis].

Today’s Scripture reference answers the question posed by today’s topic, the question of how? How are we to show up before God? The Bible tells us, boldly and confidently because of Christ and our faith in Him. Remember the illustration of the little boy that goes to bed without saying good night to his father? Now imagine that his father got really upset about that and has decided to punish him. But just as the father was prepping the boy for punishment, the mother, his wife, steps in and begins to plead for mercy for the boy. And the father, because of his love for his wife forgives the boy. Does that make the boy righteous? The boy is forgiven but he is not righteous.

But in our case, we are forgiven and righteous because Jesus forgives our sins and our deeds have been cared for by Jesus. Jesus died on The Cross and when God looks at my past and your past, He sees the Blood of Jesus. When He looks at you and me now, He sees Jesus’ outstretched arms saying, “have mercy upon them”. So, God looks down from heaven and sees you and I totally blameless – totally blameless. You need to enter into this! Receive what Jesus has done for you; God looks down and sees you as totally blameless. So, we can come before God in confidence.

Confidence is required because God is holy. God is a holy God and the New Testament did not change that. The high priests had to tie a rope on their ankles when they showed up before God because if there was an issue, they would die. Most often, our sins try to rob us of our boldness and confidence to access God’s Presence. This has kept so many people from being in church or approaching God. But God says we should come, come boldly and confidently because of what Jesus has done for us. Eph.3:¹² “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence”[with emphasis].

Prayer [song]: Father, we have confidence by the Blood of Jesus. To come into the place where You are (to come into the place where You are). By the New and Living Way, we come into Your holy place. We’ve come to worship You with all of our hearts, (we’ve come to worship you with all our hearts). Amen!