Approaching the Throne of Grace

By Ronda Werre

Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Jesus spoke these words centuries ago, yet still the invitation to approach God to receive rest for wearied and burdened hearts continues to beckon through the ages. The writer of Hebrews echoed those words of Jesus after his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead when he described the God of Christianity as, One who has been tempted in every way, just as we areyet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Approaching the Throne of Grace is an A to Z compilation of characters, each of them weary and burdened in ordinary ways. Some cry out to God and receive grace, while others receive grace not realizing they were in need.

As each story is told, and the Throne of Grace is approached, grace is woven in and around a community of people. This forms a tapestry of Gods grace, poured out and lived out in the lives of each of the characters and the people whose lives they touch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490878362

Ronda Werre

Ronda Werre has had words rattling around in her head since she was a young girl. Ronda received her first Snoopy journal when she was around twelve, and she has been writing her thoughts down ever since. Being a navy wife, mother, and registered nurse has exposed Ronda to people from all walks of life.    Ronda has lived in seven states as a career navy wife and mother. She and her husband have come full circle to the state in which they met, and they now make their home on a lake near Mauston, Wisconsin.

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Copyright © 2015 Ronda Werre .

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-7835-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7837-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7836-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015906666

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/06/2015

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Anxious Abby

Ben the Bartender

Candy the Compulsive Counter

Divisive David

Exasperated Ella

Frank and His Fear of Failing

Goody Two Shoes Glenda

Heaven Sent Henry

Impatient Irene

Judgmental Jeff

Karma Kelly

Lonely Larry

Mournful Margaret

Newsman Ned

Ora the Orphan

Proof Positive Pete

Queen Esther

Restless Robert

Stressed Out Stephanie

Tattooed Tom

Unsuspecting Ursula

Volatile Vincent

Wayne the Wounded Warrior

Xavier the Xenophile

Yesterday Yolanda

Zeal-less Zeke

Epilogue

Afterword

Reader’s Guide

For Deedee

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 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 4:15-16

(New Living Translation)

Humility is the only soil in which the graces root, the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all; because it alone assumes the right attitude before God and allows Him as God to do all.

Andrew Murray

Acknowledgments

One of my favorite parts to read in a book is the Acknowledgements section. I never dreamed I would ever publish my own book, so having the privilege of giving credit to those who made this possible is really exciting for me. I first must acknowledge the One who makes all things possible. Without the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ these words would never have made their way into your hands.

After Him, the list is too long to make without the risk of missing someone. I will say thank you to any and all who loved me, prayed for me, encouraged me, and believed I could when I certainly didn’t. This book is the fruit of your labor of love towards me through the many years you have cheered me on. No words will ever be able to truly convey my gratitude. So I will simply say: Thank you. May God bless you above and beyond your wildest imagination.

Prologue

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. ‘Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.’

Psalm 91:11-16

Two angels walked among the earth debating the plight of the humans they were each assigned to guard and the discussion had begun to get lively. Hesediel’s outlook on the human it was assigned to was more on the idealistic side than that of his counterpart. Raphael complained to Hesediel that trying to guard and protect his assigned human would certainly prove to be a waste of time.

I told Jesus, Raphael was saying, guys like him are a waste of time. He’s got the disposition to really make a mess of his life. I’ll be putting in a lot of overtime keeping this one out of trouble.

Earlier in the day, when Jesus had first heard his beloved Raphael’s analysis, he smiled at him and said, It seems to me you may have forgotten the power at your disposable. Your friend down there needs you. He needs what I have to give him. He just doesn’t know it yet. Placing his hands on the angel’s shoulders, Jesus looked into Raphael’s eyes and smiled. There is nothing my blood can’t overcome. You’re there to guard. Let my spirit do the rest.

Raphael understood and sheepishly nodded. I know you’re right, Master, but it’s been awhile since you’ve walked around down there. It’s a lot messier now than it was when you were there. There’s a lot more guarding and protecting needed. The temptations and despair Lucifer is throwing at your children are coming faster and more devious than ever before.

With Jesus’ hands still firmly on Raphael’s shoulders, he touched the angel’s forehead with his own and said, You can do it. Just remember who you work for.

Feeling the warm healing power of his Master flowing through his shoulders and the rest of his body, Raphael closed his eyes and said, Yes, Master, your will be done.

As Raphael and Hesediel walked along, Raphael reflected on the earlier conversation with Jesus. He smiled as he remembered the strength of Jesus’ touch as he had encouraged him. Turning to Hesediel he laughed and said, But what do I know? I’m just an angel.

The friends walked along in silence a short distance, when Raphael, who had been deep in thought, suddenly stopped and said, I’ve got it! You know how we’re always so tired at the end of our shift and we can’t wait to get relieved?

Yeaahhh? Hesediel hesitantly asked.

Getting more excited, Raphael started walking again, a little faster than his companion. Well, what if instead of constantly being on edge and anticipating the next thing these knuckleheads, I’m sorry, God’s kids are going to do and running from point A to point B, C, and D and then back to Point A…. what if we studied his kids? What if we knew God’s kids almost as well as God…you know, but not like Lucifer who uses it to plan the evil he can tempt them to do, but what if…..?

While Raphael continued walking at a brisk pace, waiting for his thoughts to catch up to his words, Hesediel struggled to keep up to his friend. Suddenly, Raphael’s eyes got wide and a big smile came over his face. Stopping abruptly, he clapped his hands and said, I’ve got it!

Hesediel, still racing to catch up and not prepared for the sudden stop, collided into his colleague.

Not seeming to notice, Raphael said excitedly, What if we asked God to tell us the strengths that he has put in his creation? At least the ones we have been assigned to, so that instead of guarding them against what Lucifer is trying to do, we can shield them more effectively from his shenanigans? You know how the Master reminds us that he’s told them to think on heavenly things?

Yes, said Hesediel, nodding as he was beginning to understand where his friend’s epiphany was leading.

Well, what if we asked the Master for permission to highlight….

Hesediel interrupted his colleague at this point, But remember we can’t…

Raising his hand to acknowledge what his partner was going to say, Raphael said, I know, I know. We can’t interfere with free will. Lucifer seems to have the market on highlighting all the tools he uses—the body image, the vanity, the greed, the fears, the evil. What if we did the same, only with a different mirror?

I’m starting to see the possibility, Hesediel said. My only question is, how? How do we pull it off?

Well, Raphael said, first we have to ask the One who could give us the ok to start with. I’m sure if He agrees the rest will be easy.

Shrugging his shoulders and rubbing his chin, Hesediel said, Then I guess the only thing left to do is talk to the Master.

Slapping their hands in the air, the angels high fived and headed to the throne room. As always, the doors were open. As Raphael and Hesediel entered, they saw Jesus sitting to his Father’s right. As the angels quietly approached, they could hear bits and pieces of the conversation the Divinity was having. The angels could see Jesus, holding a large book in his hands. They stood for a moment and watched the Father nodding and smiling as Jesus read from the Book of Life.

Abby, Jesus was saying, she’s going to do great things. Your plan for her life is unfolding nicely he said to the Father. And Ben and Candy, and remember, I told you about my friend Zeke, he’s going to make a big impact on his corner of the world.

Excellent, the Father said.

Raphael and Hesediel could have listened all eternity to the divine ones speak, but realizing they were running late, cleared their throats instead. Excuse the interruption, Raphael boldly said.

Jesus and the Father looked up. They smiled at each other and then at the angels, standing in front of their thrones. Not waiting for the angels to speak they said together, We gave you a great idea, didn’t we? Come on over, let’s get started. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

Anxious Abby

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

Abby didn’t want to be anxious. She really tried to fight against the all-consuming awareness that she wasn’t in control. Being anxious helped her to stay focused on the false comfort that she was in control of her circumstances, but what she couldn’t control were the other 99 percent of the people and circumstances around her.

What made Abby’s anxiety even worse was the fact that she was an astronaut, of all things. Her whole career was based on the sole need to trust the other 99 percent implicitly as they sent her into space. Why Abby decided to be an astronaut is another story altogether, but it is enough to tell you here that as she and her sister Candy were growing up, they both knew they were expected to excel in whatever they choose to do.

Abby and her sister were products of well educated and successful parents so the only way either of them could go was up, and Abby just happened to pursue this idea literally.

When she was a girl, she’d drag her little sister out into the backyard on a warm summer’s night, lay a blanket down on the grass, and teach her sister the astronomy her little mind knew. They would lie on their backs, looking up at the night sky, and Abby would point out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. Her little sister would say with a lisp, We can call it the Big Thither and Little Thither, like me and you.

Abby would roll her eyes and enunciate the S in sister. Say esssss. Candy would try and try, but her tongue would get in the way. Eventually, Abby would move on to Orion’s Belt and the other constellations of the galaxy.

Candy would eventually fall asleep on the blanket and Abby would lie on her back with her hands behind her head and dream of the day she would be up there among the stars. Her young mind wondered how it all came to be. As she grew up, her educational pursuits began to answer some of the questions of her childhood, but in the back of her mind there was always a whisper of doubt. What if there was more than just a cosmic explosion or an evolution of one cell into zillions of cells that made up the universe’s matter? Those thoughts would exit her mind as quickly as they entered, but they did visit.

Abby’s childhood dream of exploring the universe to find answers for herself drove her to excel. But her pursuit of excellence, driven by perfection, had its taskmasters. One of the minions with the strongest whip was anxiety.

Anxiety kept her awake at night and distracted during the day. As the days and hours counted down to the launch into space, the anxiety would build, and questions would torment her.

What if her astronaut suit had a small hole in it? What if the person who was in charge of the inspection of her suit got distracted by a phone call or text message? What if that person was hung over and somehow missed a fine detail that would keep her helmet from containing the oxygen she needed as the spaceship rocketed into space?

What if a bolt—just one bolt—came loose on the outside of the spaceship and caused an explosion in space?

What if? What if? What if?

This lead question was always at the forefront of Abby’s mind, teasing her, pursuing her, and not letting her rest. The what-ifs about the circumstances of her job tied her stomach in knots, as well as the barrage of attention her anxiety gave to the little details in life when she wasn’t preparing to go to space. The questions the rest of us face every day without the excess anxiety tormented Abby. What type of bread should she buy that is healthy? Where she should invest her money without taking too much of a risk? What shoes look right with this outfit and were they made in the USA or were they made by a child in a third world country who had no food except what he or she had to beg for on the street? If you asked Abby to list the things that gave her anxiety it would be easier for her to list the things that didn’t give her anxiety.

Abby wondered sometimes as she tried to fall asleep if it was always going to be this way. She eventually resigned herself to the fact it probably would. She didn’t remember a day in her life when she did not feel the physical symptoms of anxiety. As she got older, she realized how tiring being anxious made her, and that in itself was getting old. Anxiety drained her and left her feeling tired and exhausted. Exhaustion is unhealthy when you are an astronaut flying into space.

Abby didn’t know how not to be anxious and sometimes thought she actually didn’t want to not be anxious. In those sleepless nights when she’d scold herself for being anxious she’d reason that anxiety was a part of her, had helped keep her focused, and helped her succeed. More times than not, anxiety was in the driver’s seat of her life. But she knew people who never seemed to worry about anything and wondered, Why can’t I be like them? Is this my lot in life? Why can’t I just trust people more? Why can’t I just LET GO?

One day, while Abby looked out of the space station window, she saw the stars in the galaxy surrounding her. She saw the blackness of the atmosphere and the brightness of the world she hovered above. As she looked down on earth and saw the oceans and mountains, she heard the whisper of doubt she hadn’t heard for a long time echo in her mind: What if I’m wrong? What if all that I see wasn’t the result of some random cosmic explosion or one cell morphing into trees and humans and animals and plants? What if—and she felt a nervousness in her chest as her thoughts continued, There is a design or a creator who thought the universe out and planned its design?

Even her space suit and the space station she now sat in had to start in the imagination of one person. Then the ideas were put down on paper and drawn out. Why couldn’t there be someone or something which created all that lay beneath her and around her, keeping everything in perfect orbit and in its proper place, not a degree out of line?

What if? The thought whispered.

Abby looked around her workspace and saw that no one was paying attention to what she was doing. Clearly, no one else heard what she was hearing. She breathed a deep sigh and closed her eyes. What could it hurt? She thought, as words formed in her mind, reminding her of when she was a girl lying on her back on a warm summer night, the soft breathing of her sleeping sister lying next to here in sync with the night sounds.

I’ve tried everything else I can think of to let go, she reasoned. Why not try this?

If you are there, God, Abby whispered, "if you are able to hold the planets in their place, in perfect distance from the sun, surely you can rest my anxious mind. I’m tired, God. If you are there, God, if there is a God, do you hear me? I’m tired."

That’s all she said. That’s all she confessed to a God who may or may not be there for her. She opened her eyes and looked around. Nothing had changed; no one had moved. Her colleagues still sat in their work areas, looking at their screens and charts.

Abby shrugged her shoulders and got back to work, quickly scolding herself for doing something so foolish. She didn’t feel any different—not that she really knew what she was expecting. From where she sat, nothing had changed—including, she cringed, her anxiety. She could feel it even stronger than when she had whispered that foolish prayer or whatever it was she had done in her total lapse of scientific reasoning. Nothing’s ever going to change, she thought, feeling defeated and more anxious than when she’d prayed.

When she arrived back on Earth a few weeks later and the post-space flight anxiety began to lift, Abby got back into her routine of daily living. One Sunday morning, she headed to the grocery store to restock her refrigerator and pantry.

She liked to go on a Sunday morning when it was quiet and there were not a lot of people around. She joked to herself often as she went up and down the aisles of the local market. Only heathens like me shop on a Sunday.

As Abby pulled into the parking lot, she saw the church across the street with its doors open and people walking in. That’s funny, Abby thought. I don’t remember seeing that church there before. I don’t think I was in space so long that a whole church could be built. Abby could see a sign in front, but she couldn’t make out its words; she just saw the outer edge, which had the words His Way.

She heard that quiet whisper again as she stood by her car and watched the activity across the street, What if you’re wrong? Abby looked around, searching the parking lot for the voice she was sure she heard. Seeing no one nearby except the people across the street, she laughed at herself and started walking to the front door. Get it together, girl, she whispered to herself. Get it together.

Walking into the grocery store, Abby got her cart and started her shopping. As would always happen, the grocery store anxieties took their places in her mind. She read the labels and looked for expiration dates. Tears came to her eyes as she realized how tired she really was of this anxious weight she carried all the time.

As she came to the last aisle where the bread was stocked, Abby stood in front of the multitude of choices and choked back a sob. Before even thinking about it, she cried out in her heart, Help me! Please, someone, help me! For a brief moment, she felt the anxiety in her stomach start to increase, and she awaited the nothing she was sure would happen, just like the first time she had prayed. But suddenly, she felt a release, and a peace settled over her as a heavy weight lifted.

Within seconds, the anxiousness was completely gone. Abby checked her thoughts and couldn’t find a sign of one fear that had entered the store with her. Abby laughed out loud when she realized she felt different. Really different. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she reached out and grabbed the first loaf of bread her fingers touched. Without looking at the label or the color of the bag’s contents, she tossed it in her cart and