The Throne Room

By Brooke Momblow

Isaiah 61:10 “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.”

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Sometimes I hesitate to enter the Presence of God through prayer. I feel as though I haven’t measured up enough or repented enough of my missteps to come boldly before the Throne of Grace. In fact, there are days I slink into the Throne Room, if I dare at all to enter. Some days I rely on the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and words and actions, I respond with gentleness instead of anger, with kindness instead of impatience, and this leaves me feeling more comfortable about coming to talk with God. Other days I can forget or willfully refuse to lean on the Spirit to remind me to think about and act on the words of scripture. Which leads to behaviors and attitudes that cause me to slink. Jerry Bridges, in The Discipline of Grace, refers to this as the Good Day/Bad Day Syndrome. Seems like I’ve had several of these “bad days” recently.

During a set aside time to pray and read the Bible I was hesitating to enter into prayer. I had just spent time repenting and asking forgiveness of God, already having asked forgiveness from the parties involved in one of these “bad day” scenarios, but I still felt unworthy to come to God. Maybe I needed to run out and do an act of kindness for someone and then come back to prayer or perhaps grovel a little more, give myself another mental tongue lashing to be sure it stuck, and repeat again to God how sorry I am… These feelings surprised me. Was I attempting to earn grace? We have just finished celebrating Easter and still my old self dares to rise up and attempt to redeem itself? Shouldn’t the work of the cross send me running to the feet of Jesus on my bad days rather than hiding? These thoughts led me to contemplate what God’s word says about the redemptive work Jesus has done for us. Jesus’ blood that becomes for us a robe of righteousness allows us to enter into His presence.

So, I decided to begin my prayer time with the practice of picturing myself in scripture. Revelation chapters 4 & 5 have an amazing description of the throne room of God. Through my mind’s eye I pictured myself putting on a brilliant white robe that seemed to glow. Nervously I tried to smooth a non-existent wrinkle with my hand. The robe is necessary to enter the King’s presence. Jesus had given the robe to me as a gift because I didn’t have one of my own, but I had received an invitation to come meet with the King. Following the description in Revelation I could picture the Awesomeness of the place I was entering. The vision of flashes of lightening, rainbows of color around the throne, thinking I could hear the peals of thunder and smell the sweet smell of incense. It turns out, that sweet smell of incense is actually the prayers of God’s people. Creatures in front of the throne cover their faces and feet as they speak words that rush through my chest and leave me breathless as the truth of them meet my consciousness “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” There are 24 other thrones around The Throne and the Elders sitting on them fall to their faces to worship every time the creatures speak. They lay their crowns at His feet. Spontaneously I fall to my face with them. On my knees with my arms stretched out in front of me, I wonder if my legs would even hold me if I wanted to stand.

The Elders say, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Then I see a Lamb, looking as though he’d been slain, standing in the center of the throne and suddenly there are thousands of angel voices, together with the creatures and the Elders, and they sing “Worthy is the Lamb, who is slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” The Awesomeness of the moment overwhelms me. My heart shouts, “Worthy is the Lamb who is slain!” and I am so full of love and gratitude for the Lamb. I marvel that I’ve been invited into this Holy of Holies, that I’m wanted here and expected to come since receiving my invitation. How could I possibly be welcome in this place? In my mind I look again at my white robe, still without spot or blemish, slowly I stand to my feet. I lift my eyes to gaze on his beauty, this is where my help comes from.

Shifting from the passage I had been reading I moved into grateful praise and awed adoration of my God. Thanking him for the privilege of being able to come before him and talk with him in prayer. Giving thanks for his mercy and for his faithful grace to help me.

To Ponder:

-Do you struggle with good day/bad day syndrome?

-Does the idea of coming boldly to receive mercy or grace to help, change the way you approach God on bad days?

-My picture of the robe of righteousness I’m wearing humbles my idea of “good days,” and I realize it is only through the Spirit’s help that any good comes from the things I attempt. How does this idea change the way we approach God on our good days?

A Prayer for Us:

“We continually ask God to fill us with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” In Jesus name we ask, so be it.

                                        Colossians 1:9-12 NIV (paraphrased)