Selfish Thoughts

I originally wrote this over seven months ago, and for some reason I felt it was incomplete so I didn't post it. I just happened to find it last night. To be honest, I'm not sure I even remember writing it! But, it was a good reminder to come back and read it again, and after a quick proofing and an edit here and there, I decided to go ahead and post it. Maybe it will affect one of you today in a way it might not have seven months ago!

I read a devotional this morning that got me thinking about something. You know how it goes – you read something, and then your mind wanders, and then you go back to the Scripture and see things you’ve never seen before. After reading the devotional, I read Hebrews 10:19-22, which reads, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

First of all, the confidence we have is because of cleansing of sin – nothing else. It’s not a confidence that God’s going to do all we ask, although He will if we ask in His will. It’s a confidence that we are pure before Him and can enter His presence because of that. Can you imagine how we will react when we are visually in His presence? Will we come before Him and say, “Lord, this is what we want in this situation, so please do it,” and then tag on that requisite phrase, “if it is Your will”? When we say that, we aren’t really acknowledging God’s will! We’re simply saying catch words to make our prayer “right!”

On the other hand, will we boldly come and make our demands saying, “Lord, you have to do this because Your Word says…”? If we were truly in His presence, would we have that audacity? Something tells me that if we were standing before Him in all His glory, we wouldn’t be asking Him much of anything! Something tells me we would be rather speechless for one thing, but that we would also have absolutely no doubt in the perfection of His will and His capability to ensure the completion of that will!

The great thing is that we don’t have to wait for death to be in His presence. This verse says that we have the confidence and privilege to enter His presence here and now! So, why do we act as if we’re sending a letter to some distant person we hardly know, presenting our wishes and demands to Him? Let us come before Him with confidence, not demands. Let us come before Him with assurance in His perfect will, not reminders of what He promised to do. Let us come before Him in perfect submission, asking Him only to guide us as we pray that our prayers may be in line with His will to accomplish His purpose – the purpose of drawing us closer to Himself.