ENTERING GODS PRESENCE WITH BOLDNESS.

Hebrews 4:16    "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
God here invites us to come into his presence, before his throne boldly. His throne is a throne of grace not of judgement. When we come to the throne God offers us both mercy and grace, mercy for the past and grace for the present and the future. The key here is that we come boldly before the throne. The word boldly means to come with confidence, assurance and without reservation. If we look at Acts 4:31 we see here that the disciples had prayed and asked God for boldness, and in this verse we see that the house that they were in was shaken and they went out and spoke the word with boldness. The word there for boldness is the same word that is used in our key scripture for boldly. When we come before Gods throne we come with praise and worship, we come in prayer and supplication, and when we come with boldness we come making a statement of praise, worship and faith. The word for boldness speaks also of outspokenness, unreserved utterance, freedom of speech.
When we come before Gods throne we come based on who we are in Christ, we come based on the finished work of the cross, that through what Christ has done for us we are no longer sinners, but we are now made righteous in Christ and that we our joint heirs with Jesus. We don't come grovelling before God, but we can freely enter into his presence, God accepts as his sons and daughters based on covenant relationship. We see two examples of this in scripture, the first one is King David and Mephibosheth, David was in covenant with Johnathon, Mephibosheths father and after Johnathon died David went and found Mephibosheth and brought him back to his palace because he wanted to show him the kindness of God and so honour the covenant he had had with Johnathon. David promises to restore back to Mephibosheth all the land that had been Sauls and he could eat at Davids table. Mephibosheth only sees himself as a dead dog, but David dose not see him that way, he sees him as a covenant partner and welcomes him into his home and to his table on that basis. The other example is the parable of the prodigal son found in Luke 15, the younger son had taken his share of his fathers inheritance and wasted it on wild living. When he comes to his senses he decides to return home and throw himself on his fathers mercy. Before he gets back to his fathers house his father sees him coming and runs out to meet him. The son tries to tell his father that he is no longer worthy to be called his son, but his father ignores what his son says. We actually see that before his son says anything the father has already had compassion on him, thrown his arms around him and kissed him on his neck. This action of greeting his son in this way is very important, in the culture of the day, and even today if a man greets an other man in this way it means that he totally accepts the other man as his friend and equal.
This is how God accepts us and welcomes us into his presence because of what Jesus has done for us. Far too often we hear people say that they are not worthy to come into Gods presence, this is not true, and actually is a denial of what Jesus has done for them on the cross.
 So whether it be in your daily walk with Jesus, or when you go to church to worship him with your brothers and sisters in Christ can I encourage you at all times to come boldly before his throne, this is what he wants, this is what he invites you to do. The truth of the matter is, as far as church is concerned, how you come into his presence there is really a reflection of how you come into his presence during the rest of the week. If you are not one who is used to coming into Gods presence during the week you will find it hard on a Sunday, so I encourage you to start to make it a habit to spend time in his presence and know that you can come boldly before his throne.