When I was in college, many of my professors had an “open door” policy, which was an offer to counsel any student who had questions or who was struggling with the class material. What better source for help could there be than from the teacher of that class? Their goal was the student’s success.

Christian discipleship and disciple making can also raise questions in our minds, as we learn to obey Jesus’ teachings and follow where He leads. Even though we’ve been given an instruction manual in our Bible, we sometimes need personal counsel from the Teacher Himself. Gratefully, He also has an open-door policy, and He too has the goal of our success, which is that we become conformed to His image.

Our passage today describes the open door we’ve been given to the very throne room of God. There we are able to encounter His majesty, His sovereignty, and His power. While that can be pretty intimidating, we can be bold, knowing that God’s grace has also been extended to us because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Even more, Jesus intercedes for us perfectly, because He once lived with us and fully understands our every weakness, struggle and suffering.

Jesus has called us to be disciples, and He has also commissioned us to make other disciples. He did not just give us the Bible and tell us to do the best we could with what we read. Rather, He encourages us to ask, seek and knock. He is ready to help us learn to follow Him and accomplish His mission. His door is always open—no appointment is necessary. We have no excuse for not entering!

Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Are you having trouble in your own discipleship or in discipling others?
2. Do you rejoice that there is a throne of grace and that we are welcomed there to find help?
3. Do you acknowledge your need to go there every day?

Family Activity

Read Mark chapter 15 together as a family. Recount Jesus’ crucifixion, focusing on verses 37-38, “Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last. Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Remind your family, before Jesus died on the cross for us, there was a curtain that separated the people from God’s presence. They could not approach God freely. But now, since Jesus died for us, and paid the price of our sin through His death and resurrection, we are able to “approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16.

Talk together about this special gift from Jesus; how we can go to Him anytime and anywhere confidently and with boldness. Pray together to be bold in your faith, as a family, and to not only seek Him regularly, but to point others to His goodness.