Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

“Speak up, Son. I can’t understand you when you mumble,” my husband said. One of our boys had come into the living room, found us sitting on the sofa, and asked us a question. I couldn’t understand a word he said. Our boys know that we do not like mumbling, and they are not going to get anything when they mumble. Our son stood up straight and asked his question again. This time we understood him, and my husband smiled and answered, “Sure. Go ahead.” With this, our son smiled and raced out of the room.

I can’t help but get that mental image when I read Hebrews 4:16 (above). Our Heavenly Father wants us to speak up and stop mumbling! If we have a question, He wants us to come boldly and ask for what we need or want. No mumbling!

Why do kids mumble when they are asking a question? I believe there are a couple reasons.

  1. They don’t think they are going to get a “yes” to their answer. If my son wants to play video games, he may mumble as he asks me for permission because he doesn’t think I will say “yes.” He might be afraid that coming to me will remind me of 10 more chores I want him to do. (I’m never guilty of that!!)
  2. He doesn’t think he deserves a “yes” answer. If my he wants to do something fun, but he hasn’t finished his duties, he may try to get me to say “yes” to him, but he’s not confident he should ask, so he may mumble as he speaks.

These may be the same reasons why we might “mumble” when we pray to God. When we pray, we should go to the Lord with confidence and faith, believing that He will hear us and that He will answer our prayer.

James 1:6-7, “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”

Jesus paid it all! We can approach God with confidence, knowing that He loves us and sees us as a redeemed child of His. But we cannot please Him without faith. (Hebrews 11:6) The only hindrance we have to getting our prayers answered is a lack of faith. Stop the mumbling! Believe God!

Let me be clear. This does not mean that the Lord will give us anything we want. But we can be confident that He hear us and answers our prayer when we come to Him, as Christians, and we pray in faith.

The other hindrance to praying with boldness is that we realize that we are living apart from God’s will. When we know God’s laws, and we are consciously breaking those laws, we cannot pray with boldness. The problem here is on our end, not God’s. Remember, as a child of God, the Lord sees us as blameless, covered in Jesus’ blood. BUT, that is the horrible thing about sin. Sin in our life will convince US that we are not worthy to pray. So, the best way to get boldness in our prayer life is to confess our sins regularly and to live according to God’s Word. Clean living will give us the confidence in prayer that pleases our Heavenly Father.

Ladies, our Abba Father owns everything. He created the world in 6 days. I know and you know that nothing is too big for God! So, knowing that He loves us, He hears us, and He wants to answer the prayers of His child, let us come BOLDLY to Him and ask what we will!

And stop the mumbling!