Recklessly Unannounced

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

After a quite intense battle with infertility, God blessed my husband and me with a daughter. We see Him in her every day of her life, and could never express the gratitude our hearts hold for His indescribable gift.

When she was two years old, Lexie had a seizure. We were visiting with my parents who lived smack dab in the middle of a national forest, and were about 45 minutes from the nearest hospital. Since she had not been feeling well that day, my husband slept in one bed and I put Lexie in the bed with me. About 4 AM my bed began to shake as if we were in the throws of a major earthquake! I flipped the lamp on to see this miracle baby God had given me with her eyes rolled in the back of her head and her entire body violently thrashing in every direction all at once!

I immediately grabbed her in my arms and began to run through the house alerting my family. I banged on the wall to wake my husband and headed for my parents’ bedroom. When I got to their room, I slammed the door open, threw my seizing baby on my parents’ bed and screamed “Daddy, pray! Lexie’s having a seizure!”

Before they could shake the sleep from their minds, both of my parents, my husband and I were crying out to God in a way I never had before. I could not even begin to think that God would grant us the miracle of this child after fighting infertility like we did, and then lose her to a seizure in the middle of the night. We called on God with amazing fervency, and He heard our cries. God brought my daughter through the seizure that night, and she has never had another one. To God be the glory!

I share this story with you, because I think there is a great truth for you to learn in your struggle with infertility. In the moments when I realized we had a major problem on our hands, the first thing I did was wake my husband and run to my parents room. I called out to my dad to begin praying. (My dad was a pastor for nearly 60 years. It seemed the natural thing for me to call his name, although I knew my mom and husband would pray just as fervently, and they did!) Do you think I knocked on the door? Do you think I stood at the door to their bedroom with my seizing baby in my arms and wondered if it was okay for me to disturb their sleep? Should I have called someone else down the street who might still be awake? Of course not! I burst through my father’s door, threw my sick baby on the bed and cried out for help.

This is a great example of what God tells us to do when we need His help! Hebrews 4:16 says:

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

God invites us to come to Him to receive mercy and grace in our time of need. The words “draw near with confidence” literally mean “come recklessly unannounced”! God tells us to come recklessly unannounced into His throne room to find the help we need! The night of the seizure, I didn’t wait to be invited before I burst into my father’s room. I didn’t ask someone else to go there for me. I didn’t wonder if he’d be mad for me waking him up, or if he would refuse to help me pray. I didn’t have to. He’s my father, and I’m his child. That’s all the authority I needed to burst through his door recklessly unannounced.

Burst into God’s throne room recklessly unannounced to find help when you need it. When you feel like you can’t take this struggle anymore, go recklessly unannounced to your Father and cry out for help. He won’t turn you away. When another period starts, or you and your spouse just can’t agree on what steps to take next, cry out to your Father and approach Him recklessly unannounced! Bring your hurt and your problem to Him and cast it on Him. He knows how heavy the burden of infertility is for you. He’ll respond to the cry of His child with grace and mercy to help you in your time of need.