FINDING GRACE TO HELP
Hebrews 4:16 Let us then draw near with confidence (parresia) to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help (boētheia) in time of need (eukairos).
I believe that Scripture summarises the experience of the previous account of the Mountain of Transfiguration where I outlined the three stages of personal transformation (transfiguration). These stages were, climbing the mountain, being on the mountain, and coming down from the mountain.
What I’d like to share about today is ‘Finding grace to help’ which is the most significant aspect of stage two, about being on top of the mountain in the presence of God.
That Scripture starts off by encouraging us to ‘draw near with confidence to the throne of grace’, and that summarises the first stage of the process, of climbing up the mountain.
Our drawing near is the intention of our hearts to be closer to God. This happens as we climb and as we consider the issues of our daily life down below that are now going to be given to the Lord. We approach with confidence (parrēsia – frank and outspoken - the freedom of speech as from one citizen to another), being honest with the Lord about our doubts and fears and confusion about what to do or say in certain situations. We might question him by asking ‘why is this situation happening to me? Somehow, in one way or another we always get answers to questions like that, and they can be quite amusing. The Lord has a sense of humour and helps us to laugh at ourselves sometimes.
And all the while as we are climbing, we are ‘receiving mercy’. We would not dare draw near to him without knowing and believing that this mercy was available to us, and we would certainly not confidently discuss our weakness and failures and doubts and lack of faith in such an open and honest manner on the climb unless we were willing to receive this mercy.
On the climb we are anticipating reaching the ‘Throne of grace’, the place from where all the divine activity of God (which is what grace is) flows into the hearts of his human family in the earth. That is the mountain top where we will ‘find grace to help’.
God’s grace is always there for each one of us, and mostly we don’t know it.
That Is why we have to find it!
The Bible tells us that Noah ‘found grace’ in the eyes of the Lord’.
God told Moses that he had ‘found grace in his sight’
Being in God’s sight, or in the eyes the Lord means that those men knew that God was looking upon them, his countenance was shining upon them (countenance = face = presence). When something in our hearts tells us that God is mercifully and lovingly looking upon us, we know that we have FOUND GRACE! We are no longer self-conscious but God conscious, and that is GRACE (reflect upon that now).
We are simply experiencing God’s loving and powerful activity toward us as his children, and sometimes it comes to us by surprise - something happens in the core of our being that brings us closer to God. That is his sovereign grace. We could be empowered by his grace activity to soften our hearts and to surrender our will to him, or to ask him to change us and to create a clean heart within us. Sometimes it comes as an anointing of the Holy Spirit to bless and serve other people with a gift of grace from God. The Bible says that through Jesus we have access by faith into this grace where we can stand and rejoice in hope for the things God will do in our lives (Romans 5:2). We can ‘find grace’ at any time!
The Scripture goes on to says that we find grace ‘to help’. The word ‘help’ here does not simply mean to assist or to give aid in a general way. The word is boētheia and is of a very peculiar origin. It is defined as ‘a rope or chain for frapping a vessel’, and that entails the binding of four or five turns of a large cable or rope round a ship's hull when it is feared that the hull is not strong enough to resist the stormy sea.
The word boētheia occurs only twice in the Bible, here, and also in Acts 27:17.
Acts 27:14 But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship’s hull. After hoisting it up, they used ‘helps’ to undergird the ship. (boētheia - frapping)
I had never heard of the word ‘frap’ in my life before but now I’m finding that it could be one of the most transforming and transfiguring words I’ve ever stumbled upon.
Paul took this word ‘helps’ from his experience on a stormy sea as a prisoner being escorted by ship to Rome. From Rome he wrote his letter to the Hebrews, and he used this same word help (boētheia) that we find in our text.
Holding our soul together
He uses this word to describe what kind of protective holding together that the ship needed on a stormy sea and applies it to the activity of God’s grace in holding our soul together when we face the uncertainties of times of need in our lives.
Our souls are comprised of our mind and our emotions and our will, and these three parts need to work in unity with one another and be reordered when they look like flying apart - and that takes more than a self-help program to hold our soul together.
We might have our routine tasks organized and stay calm, but our minds could be wandering all over the place, or we can have thought things through clearly and doing what needs to be done but find that our emotions are in a state of anxiety for no reason. And there are times when we find ourselves wearied in soul to the point that our will no longer has strength and we need to find rest for our souls. What holds us together is the activity of the grace of God that reorders our confused mind through the Holy Spirit, and the same activity of grace brings peace to our heart from the throne of grace as we draw near to God, and the same grace brings our will into a place of yielding to the will of God when we cry out to him.
Words of Grace from Jesus
This gives meaning to our hearing the words of grace from Jesus that say to us ‘come to me when you are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest for your souls’ (Matthew 11:28), and when we hear him say ‘my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, so let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27
Grace seats itself first deep within our spirit and then it brings rest to our souls. That rest is not laziness or passivity but the soul’s relief from the nagging feeling of self-consciousness and the welcome enclosure of God consciousness.
Time of need - eukairos (the good moment)
Receiving mercy and finding grace are aspects of God’s love that are poured out in the provision of his protective help of holding us together. That provision arrives at the appropriate and appointed time. It is God’s eukairos – for the right time, the right moment, the right occasion. This grace that you have prayed for will hold your soul together (the frapping) at the time you ask for it, AND it will find you in a time of anticipated future challenge because you have prepared your heart of faith to receive it.
We can take hold of and embrace the activity of grace with all the energy within us, being grateful for having found grace in God’s grace filled world where he wraps us in his love. Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has shone upon all mankind.
Our rule of life
Finding grace becomes the rule of our lives and this amazing grace which is the powerful redemptive relationship between God and his human family merits our perseverance in faith and obedience. It is the discipline that makes the word disciple worthy of its description. We start each day with a time of finding grace in the loving gaze of the Lord, and then through the day we can have times of ‘recollection’ of this grace filled time of our souls being held together, that need only take a minute – twenty seconds of coming near and receiving mercy then twenty seconds of finding grace in his sight then twenty seconds of faith for the grace to help in the times of need ahead.
Grace has kept the church alive despite its being so much overlooked throughout the years, and in these days, God is holding it out to us to become the prize!
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home
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