Boldness

You probably never experienced this as a child, but on a few rare occasions, I was invited to visit the office at my high school. The only three people who would request the presence of a student in the office were the principal, the vice principal and the counselor. Since the Mr. Vick, the principal liked to come to the classrooms to talk to people, and it took an appointment to get in to see the counselor, it was a pretty safe bet that if you heard the dreaded words, “Randy Welch, please report to the office immediately,” it was not for a tea party. You were probably headed to see Mr. Sipes, the vice principal in charge of discipline. It was like going to the dentist. There were only a few options and all but one of them was bad.

Ephesians 3

¹²Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God's presence, assured of his glad welcome.

Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus. As with many of his epistles, Paul starts this letter with words of encouragement for God’s people. In this case, he writes of the many examples of faith that he has heard spoken about the Ephesians. He promises that he will continue to lift them up in prayer as they face the day-to-day problems that rise up in the body of Christ. His prayer is not that they grow in numbers, even thought that would be a natural outgrowth of a spirit filled body. Neither is his prayer that they become financially prosperous and build a lot of buildings. Paul’s prayer for this church was for wisdom and understanding. He wanted them to grow all right, but he wanted that growth to be grounded in a special understanding of what God had in store for them.

The letter to the Ephesian church goes on to paint a picture of the life of one who chooses to be a Christ-follower. While we look at a life cycle as one that goes from birth to life to death, Paul says that a believer goes from death to birth to life in Christ Jesus. We are born dead in our sins and are made alive by our relationship with God through our Savior. This process makes us a part of the family of God and as such we become living Temples in which God can live in the person of the Holy Spirit. What a glorious description of the free gift we receive when we accept the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

In this chapter, Paul tells us that there is more. He starts the chapter with the revelation of God’s secret plan for the world – God wants every man, woman, and child ever born on this earth to become part of His family. Even though the Jews were, are and will always be His chosen people, through the work of Christ on the cross, everyone can share in this inheritance. The mind fairly boggles at the thought. God has opened His family to each and every one of us.

What is the bottom line? In this verse, Paul says that our position in the family of God gives us something that is better than life itself. He says that, as a result of our turning from a life of servitude to Satan, we have what was reserved for only the High Priest in the Old Testament. We can stand in the very presence of God the Father. Not only that, but we don’t have to approach Him with fear and trembling. Paul says we can now “come fearlessly into God’s presence.” He will not only tolerate our intrusion, we can be assured that we will be treated as an honored guest!

Christian brothers and sisters, if we are living powerless, defeated lives, it is because we have not claimed the promise in this passage. We refuse to stand before our God and give Him the praise and honor He deserves. Go boldly into His presence and make your requests known. God not only allows it, He desires it. He wants to show His presence, to a world dying in sin, through His people!

We serve an awesome God!!!!!