“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16
Happy Friday everyone! Imagine that you are taking a walk with your child in your neighborhood. Suddenly your child trips, falls and begins to cry. That cry is what is known as an emotional bid. It’s an action that indicates a want, a need, a longing for attention. There are emotional bids all around us each and every day. The question is, how do we respond?
In the scenario with your child falling down, imagine you responded by saying, “That’s what you get! See your shoe is untied, that’s why you fell down – it’s your fault. You don’t listen to me. You’re not very smart.” Well that type of response is known as turning against. With such a response, you are turning against the emotional bid, and adding blame and shame. Using turning against as a constant response will bring harmful repercussions in the life of that child. Whereas, being heard is part of healthy communication. It provides acknowledgement, inclusion, understanding, and healing. With God the Heavenly Father, even if your shoe was untied, and even if you failed by not listening to Him, He does not turn against you. He hears your cry, and sees your trouble, and is merciful towards those who are crushed in spirit.
The writer of Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to bring our needs to God. He writes, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You very much for yet another week, and seeing us through each day this week. With so many things happening around us in our world, we give You great thanks that You did not turn against us, but instead You turn towards us, and you kneel down and You hear our needs and take time for us. Would You help us to learn not turn against others, even when we lose our patience or are upset? Allow us to learn instead to begin to listen. And we thank You for Your love for us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.