There is a certain kind of house that everyone ought to get to grow up near. Maybe it was a grandmother’s place, or an aunt’s, or the home of a neighbor down the road. What made it that kind of house was something simple. The door was always open to you. You did not have to call ahead. You did not have to prove you had earned a visit or arrive on your best behavior. You could come on a good day, and you could come on the day everything had fallen apart, and either way there was a chair waiting and somebody glad to see you walk in.
I have been thinking about a house like that because I have been thinking about prayer. For the last several weeks our church family walked through a season we called Draw Near. We spent forty days learning to take prayer out of the category of a religious chore and move it into the category of a relationship. We learned a simple framework. We learned that prayer is an invitation and not a performance. We learned that the Holy Spirit helps us when we do not know what to say, that we can be honest with God instead of hiding behind nice words, that prayer was never meant to stop with us, and that we are not supposed to quit when an answer is slow in coming. When you put all of that together, you begin to see that prayer is less about getting the words right and more about staying near to the One who loves you.
But underneath all of it, holding the whole thing up, was one word. That word is faithful. The writer of Hebrews lands on it after he has made his case that Jesus is our great high priest. In Hebrews 10:22 he says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…,” and in the next verse he says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:22-23, ESV). There it is. We can draw near, not because we have cleaned ourselves up enough to deserve it, and not because we have prayed long enough to earn it. We can draw near because He is faithful.
That is worth slowing down to experince. There was a time when only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, and even he could only go in one day a year. The rest of the people stayed outside the curtain. Then Jesus died on the cross, and the curtain that had kept everyone out was torn in two from top to bottom. The way was opened. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22a, ESV). The door that had been closed for so long was thrown open, and it has stayed open ever since, because the One who opened it does not change His mind about us.
I find that I need to hear this, because I am tempted to treat the open door as if it depends on me. I assume that on the days I pray well, God is glad to see me, and on the days my prayers are distracted and stumbling, He must be disappointed and a little distant. But that is not how faithfulness works. Faithfulness is not measured by my performance. It is measured by His character. Every stumbling prayer we pray, every dry morning, every honest confession, every quiet word spoken on behalf of someone else, He receives all of it. Not because we got it right, but because He is faithful.
One of our people put it better than I could. She said that for years she prayed because she felt like she had to, and now she prays because she wants to. That is the whole journey in one sentence. That is what happens when you stop standing at the door wondering whether you are welcome and finally believe that the door is open and the chair is yours. The relationship changes. Prayer stops being a thing you do and becomes a place you live.
So here is what I want to carry forward, and I hope you will carry it with me. James gave us the promise that started all of this. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8, ESV). This 40-day campaign has an ending, but the relationship does not. The door does not close when the season is over. The chair does not get put away.
Whatever you are walking into this week, whatever you have prayed about for years without a clear answer, hold fast to your hope without wavering. You are not holding fast because your grip is strong. You are holding fast because His promise is sure. Come on a good day. Come on the day everything has fallen apart. The way is open, and the One who opened it is faithful. He has been waiting for you the whole time.
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