“And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”
What does it mean to boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place? The first thing that comes to my mind is the intro to Star Trek: boldly go where no one has gone before! There’s something daring about the idea of boldly walking into a place. The thing about heaven is that someone HAS gone before us — Jesus! It’s only because of him that we are able to boldly speak to God. Very few people in the Old Testament could speak to God, and even some of the most direct encounters (like Moses on a few occasions) required him to cover his face.
As today’s passage says, we can go right into the presence of God. The problem? We don’t make use of this privilege often enough. What does it mean for you to be in the presence of God? These verses say that such an encounter is connected to a sincere heart that fully trusts God. We are no longer trapped in shame and guilt and we deeply trust God to have total control of our lives. We are free.
Why do people avoid spending time in God’s presence if we have such a privilege? Often in my work as a counselor I see that people avoid God a specific reason: they do not trust him. There are areas that we don’t always want God to touch. Boldly entering his presence with a sincere heart full of trust is actually pretty hard. We have to open our hands, release control, deal with the stuff that’s in our heart and in the way. But it’s the most free place to be, and you don’t have to fix yourself first. You simply choose to be with him and slowly open your heart to him. That might not sound bold, but it takes great courage. You’ve got all of eternity to deepen your trust in him. Take time today to be in his presence on that journey.