Drawing Near to His Throne of Grace

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16 

I recently read a short but powerful biography on the life of Harriet Tubman. I was struck by the depth and simplicity of her faith in God. She was a woman who clung to her faith and trusted in God’s providence in the midst of tremendous pain and suffering. When she prayed, she expected “deliverance unless the Lord had ordered otherwise, and in that case she was perfectly willing to accept Divine decree.”* Her faith was one that trusted God’s ability to change any circumstance, yet it was tempered with humility that recognized in the moment, God's will may be different than her own. 

Necessity drove her to His throne for she had nowhere else to turn, and His powerful ability to meet her and those men and women running to freedom from bondage amazingly avoided capture again and again. She knew the depths of unjustly suffering through the brutal evils of slavery, but amazingly, she was a woman who didn't see herself as a victim, rather one who was enabled to draw near to the very throne of grace where a loving God knee and listened to her and would dispense His mercy and help directly to her. 

What the enemy intended as harm and destruction through slavery, God took and used as a powerful motivator in her life for freedom. An abundance of powerful good broke out through her not only for herself and family members but for anyone who sought her out, she readily helped. For through the Underground Railroad, she delivered men and women out of bondage and into the freedom of new life and opportunity.  God left a powerful legacy through her, one of "seeking justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God." * 

The depths of her suffering I can’t begin to imagine, but seeing how God met her in it causes my heart to trust His ability to meet me in my own. Nobody lives on this earth without suffering touching them. None of us want suffering, but it is a reality, whether due to our choices or others, or just the brokenness of the world, it crashes into our lives often unexpectedly. It is uncontrollable, at times, devastating, and no platitudes soften the blow.

Elizabeth Elliot says, “Suffering is having what you don’t want or wanting what you don’t have.” This definition invites us all to the table acknowledging that we will each encounter suffering in a variety of ways to a variety of degrees. Suffering reminds us that we are small finite creatures in great need of help. Our days are numbered and woven within all the good is pain and heartache. No escape. 

When suffering presses in though, it is vital to get our hearts and minds soaking in God’s truth, seeking His face. Reminding ourselves that God never forsakes His children, and He knows the path through, for from His presence flows an inexhaustible river of help and mercy straight from His throne of grace. 

Suffering will undoubtedly mark and shape our lives, but it doesn't need to define or control us. For when we look to Jesus, we see the man who knew the depths of painful suffering and death, the only just One dying in the place for the unjust. Yet He was perfected through His suffering which set Him apart for all time, for He alone became the founder and perfector of salvation for all who believe and trust in His name.* 

His suffering unleashed an immeasurable abundance of eternal good for our broken sinful souls that were separated from God by our rebellion. But God being rich in mercy revealed His redemption for us through the glorious cross and resurrection of Christ. "In this you greatly rejoice, even though for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;" 1 Peter 1:6-7  

There is mystery to suffering in this present age, for when we look at the lives of saints who have been through the trials and fires of this life holding fast to Jesus and drawing near to the throne of grace, Christ’s glory manifested within their desperation and His power rested upon their every weakness. His strength and grace were experienced and seen in ways unimaginable even in death, and it testifies to the transformative power of His glory. A glory that we should each long to see, humbly experience, and know intimately as His children.   

Through suffering, opportunity abounds to trust his glorious promises as it stripes away our pride and self sufficiency, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Cor.12:9  We come to know Him more intimately and taste His sufferings, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;” Philippians 3:10 as God conforms us more into bearing the image of His Son.

So for now, we cry, we bleed, and we hurt, but we are not abandoned and not without hope. For the holy One laid down his life for the unholy, and when that reality settles more and more upon and within our souls it compels us into a deeper desperation to know and experience the love of the resurrected Christ. We begin to taste and see His power and might, for He is the One seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven who accomplished salvation for all who believe. He is with us and He is for us, for suffering must obey His voice and even relent to the powerful hope found in Him alone. 

Hosea 10:12, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”  So in this world where unrighteousness and suffering abound for a season, we must sow His righteousness faithfully and be merciful as we reap. We must break out of our comfort, ease, or fear seeking the Lord Himself with a humble heart. For He is seated upon His throne of grace, and He lovingly calls us to confidently approach Him with our needs, our sufferings, while trusting that one day He will restore what is broken in us and our world.

A. W. Tozer tells of two types of ground. One is fallow and hard, protected from the shock and agitation of the plow, it’s left in comfort and ease, untouched by the painful cutting of the plow. While left unbroken, it will never see the miracle of use, of growth, or of harvest. “The other, where the plow has shattered the peace of the ground, the field is upset, turned over, bruised and broken. This is where the process of God’s creative work can be observed in all its grandeur. Here new things are born, to grow, mature, and consummate the grand prophecy latent in the seed when it enters the ground.” *

The plow of suffering will take us to our knees as it upsets our temporal world, but we must learn to trust God's loving hand to guide it with care, purposing it for good in our lives and the lives of others. His heart of compassion pours out healing over ever teardrop that falls, tendering our hearts with compassion for those hurting around us. The intimate knowing of Him is the greatest gain we will ever find in this life, as He reveals His miracles and glory in ways we could never see if we weren’t desperate for Him. 

So by God's grace may we remember He is The One who loved so much that He came to make a world of wretches His treasure, and He calls us to draw near with confidence to His throne of grace and cling to the Savior who abundantly pours out mercy and help in our time of need. May we be encouraged to lay down our lives in love and sacrifice for one another beloved of the Lord as we taste and see His glory for the flourishing and thriving of each other’s hearts, for “Nature’s wonders follow the plow.” *

*Micah 6:8
*Hebrews 2:10
*Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman The Moses of Her People, 2004
*A.W. Tozer, Paths to Power: Living in the Spirit's Fullness, 1940