Freely Speaking Audio Devotion

Welcome to Freely Speaking, an OHSOFREE devotional ministry where we share our hearts and trust God for transformation. 

Today, Sharee Gaiser explores our freedom to approach God confidently.

Our scripture is from Mark 12:30 (NIV): “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 

I was taught to pray at the dinner table and before sleeping as a child. I observed my parents approach God with confidence, gratitude, and reverence. If there was a need, they always turned to God. 

As I grew older, I struggled to approach God the same way. When turning to God in prayer, especially when I had sinned, my natural response was to hide in shame. I was afraid to come before God and believed I had to make myself right before I did. The truth is, what I tried to do in my human effort, Jesus had already accomplished on my behalf on the cross.

Paul reminds us of this truth in Ephesians 3:12 (NIV):

“In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” 

In a lightbulb moment, I wanted to know what was stopping me from doing that! When I thought about approaching God in prayer, I often reacted in one of three ways. I would:

•Diminish 

•Disqualify or

•Deviate

Let’s look at each behavior in turn and what it might look like in our lives:

When a need goes unmet, we can diminish its importance to God and us. We might wonder if God cares about what matters to us and then choose to keep it to ourselves or get over it in our strength. The problem is that the needs of our souls gnaw away at our peace, hope, and joy. We will find freedom if we bring our needs to God, even small ones. We can be confident He cares and will meet our needs because He knows what’s best.

Other times, we disqualify ourselves because we feel unworthy, believing that we are not deserving of approaching God’s throne of grace through prayer or worship. We let the opinions of others define us or allow sin to build a barrier between us and God. However, Ephesians 3:12 serves as a powerful reminder that our relationship with Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross has paved the way for us, through faith, to draw near to God with freedom and confidence. 

The enemy is always prowling around, looking for ways to distract us and cause us to take our eyes off God. He always wants us to deviate from God’s good and perfect plans, enticing us to stray and look for other ways to meet our needs or solve problems. We try to fix ourselves, seeking comfort in the world instead of God's arms. 

The Greek word ‘parresia’ translated by ‘boldness’ or ‘confidence’ means ‘freedom of speech.’ This is the blessed privilege of prayer. Because of Jesus, we can express ourselves freely before God without fear or shame, knowing with faith that He will always hear our prayers. 

Praise God that we don’t need to diminish our needs, disqualify ourselves, or deviate from the path God has for us. Let us approach with unwavering freedom and confidence, drawing closer to the God who awaits us.

Thank you for joining us today. If you would like to learn more about OhSoFree Ministries, please visit us at www.ohsofreeministries.com/