A Pastoral Message to Young People Reflecting on Ephesians 3:12
“In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.” — Ephesians 3:12
Young people, there are many places in life where you may wonder whether you truly belong.
You may walk into a classroom and wonder whether you are smart enough. You may enter a group of people and wonder whether they will accept you. You may scroll through social media and wonder whether your life measures up to the lives you see on the screen. You may think about your future and wonder whether you have what it takes to become the person you hope to become.
There are moments when confidence comes easily, but there are also moments when insecurity seems to follow you everywhere.
Yet Ephesians 3:12 speaks of a confidence far deeper than confidence in appearance, ability, popularity, intelligence, talent, or success. It speaks about something astonishing: confidence in approaching God.
“In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.”
Think carefully about what those words mean.
The God who created galaxies invites you into His presence.
The God who formed the mountains, filled the oceans, scattered the stars across the heavens, and breathed life into humanity invites you to come near.
And He does not merely allow you to approach reluctantly, as though you were an unwanted visitor standing nervously at the door.
Through Jesus Christ, God invites you to come with boldness and confidence.
That does not mean arrogance. It does not mean treating God casually or forgetting His holiness. Biblical boldness is not disrespect. It is the confidence of someone who knows that the door has been opened by Christ.
The message of Christianity is not that human beings somehow make themselves worthy enough to approach God. The gospel tells a very different story.
Sin has separated humanity from God. We have rebelled against His goodness, ignored His commands, chosen our own ways, and fallen far short of His holiness. If approaching God depended upon our moral record, none of us could approach Him confidently.
But Ephesians 3:12 begins with two enormously important words:
“In Him.”
Everything depends upon Jesus.
Your access to God is not based upon how impressive you are. It is based upon who Christ is.
Your confidence before God is not built upon your spiritual achievements. It is built upon what Christ has accomplished.
Your hope does not rest upon your ability to hold tightly enough to God. It rests upon Christ, who has opened the way into the Father's presence.
This matters especially when you fail.
There may be times when you make choices you regret. You may say something hurtful, give in to temptation, neglect prayer, struggle with doubt, become angry, act selfishly, or wander from what you know is right.
In those moments, shame often whispers something dangerous:
“Stay away from God.”
Shame tells you that you need to fix yourself before you pray again.
Shame tells you that God must be tired of hearing from you.
Shame tells you that you have failed too many times.
Shame tells you that you cannot possibly approach God after what you have done.
But the gospel tells you to run in the opposite direction.
Run toward God.
Come honestly.
Confess your sin.
Receive His mercy.
Trust Christ.
The answer to failure is not hiding from God. The answer is returning to God through Jesus Christ.
This is one of the great differences between guilt that leads toward repentance and shame that drives people into hiding. When the Holy Spirit exposes sin, He does not expose it so that you will disappear into hopelessness. He brings sin into the light so that you can confess it, receive forgiveness, and walk again in fellowship with God.
Remember what happened in the garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve sinned, they hid.
Humanity has been hiding ever since.
We hide behind achievement.
We hide behind humor.
We hide behind popularity.
We hide behind religious appearances.
We hide behind screens.
We hide behind carefully constructed versions of ourselves.
Sometimes people even hide from God while sitting in church.
But Jesus came to bring sinners out of hiding and into fellowship with God.
Through Christ, you do not have to pretend.
You can come before God as you truly are.
You can tell Him about your fears.
You can tell Him about your questions.
You can confess your sins.
You can bring Him your disappointment.
You can speak to Him about the things that confuse you.
You can cry before Him.
You can sit quietly before Him when you do not know what to say.
You can ask for wisdom.
You can seek strength.
You can ask for forgiveness.
You can bring your entire life into His presence.
Prayer does not require impressive vocabulary.
God is not grading your prayers.
You do not need to sound like a preacher.
You do not need to use religious phrases that you barely understand.
Prayer is not a performance.
Prayer is coming into the presence of the Father through the Son.
That means some of the most meaningful prayers you ever pray may be very simple:
“Lord, help me.”
“Father, forgive me.”
“Jesus, give me strength.”
“God, I don't understand.”
“Lord, show me what is right.”
“Father, I am afraid.”
“Jesus, keep me close to You.”
These may not sound impressive, but heaven is not impressed by complicated language. God desires truth in the heart.
You can come boldly because your confidence is not in the perfection of your prayer. Your confidence is in Christ.
Young people, you are growing up in a world that constantly tells you to build your identity from the outside inward.
People may tell you that your worth comes from how you look.
Others may suggest that your value depends upon your achievements.
Some will tell you that your identity is determined by what other people think about you.
Social media can turn approval into a scoreboard: likes, followers, comments, views, shares.
Without realizing it, you can begin measuring your worth through the reactions of other people.
But there is something liberating about knowing that your deepest identity does not have to be negotiated with the crowd.
If you belong to Christ, you belong to God.
You are welcomed into His presence.
That truth gives you a different kind of confidence.
It does not produce pride.
It produces freedom.
You do not have to prove that you are better than everyone else when you know that you are loved by grace.
You do not have to destroy another person's reputation to build your own.
You do not have to follow every trend to prove that you belong.
You do not have to compromise your convictions just to remain accepted.
You do not have to become someone else simply because someone else seems more popular.
Your deepest security can be found in Christ.
And that security changes the way you face the world.
When you know that you can enter God's presence with confidence, rejection does not have the final word over you.
When a friendship ends, God remains.
When someone misunderstands you, God remains.
When plans fall apart, God remains.
When you do not make the team, God remains.
When you do not receive the opportunity you hoped for, God remains.
When someone breaks your heart, God remains.
When you fail an exam, God remains.
When the future feels uncertain, God remains.
When you are frightened about what comes next, God remains.
There is enormous strength in knowing that the presence of God is not another unstable part of life.
People change.
Circumstances change.
Feelings change.
Plans change.
Bodies change.
Cultures change.
Technology changes.
But God remains faithful.
And through Christ, the door into His presence remains open.
This means prayer should not merely be an emergency button you press when life becomes unbearable.
God invites you into an ongoing relationship with Him.
Talk with Him in the morning before the noise of the day begins.
Bring Him your decisions.
Bring Him your friendships.
Bring Him your studies.
Bring Him your dreams.
Bring Him your disappointments.
Bring Him your temptations.
Bring Him your relationships.
Bring Him your future.
Bring Him the parts of yourself that you do not understand.
There is nothing about your life that is too ordinary to bring before God.
You may sometimes think God is interested only in “spiritual” matters, but all of life belongs to Him.
God cares about the kind of person you are becoming.
He cares about how you treat people.
He cares about the choices you make when nobody is watching.
He cares about what you do with your gifts.
He cares about how you respond to people who are lonely or ignored.
He cares about whether you tell the truth.
He cares about whether you forgive.
He cares about whether you use your words to heal or wound.
He cares about what shapes your mind and imagination.
He cares about the direction of your heart.
And because He cares, He invites you to walk through life with Him.
Ephesians 3:12 also says that this access comes “through faith in Him.”
Faith means trusting Jesus.
It means placing the weight of your hope upon Him.
Faith is not pretending that you never have questions. It is not convincing yourself that life will always make sense. It is not forcing yourself to feel spiritually strong every moment.
Faith is trusting Christ even when you cannot see everything clearly.
There may be seasons when God seems near, and there may be seasons when He seems silent.
There may be prayers that appear to receive quick answers and prayers you carry for years.
There may be moments when Scripture seems to shine with extraordinary clarity and moments when you struggle to understand what you are reading.
Faith continues to come.
Faith continues to seek.
Faith continues to trust.
Your confidence is ultimately not confidence in the strength of your faith. It is confidence in the One in whom you place your faith.
A trembling hand can still hold onto a strong Savior.
Do not wait until you feel spiritually impressive before approaching God.
Come when your faith feels strong.
Come when your faith feels weak.
Come when you are joyful.
Come when you are grieving.
Come when you understand.
Come when you are confused.
Come after victory.
Come after failure.
Come when you feel close to God.
Come when you feel distant.
Come because Christ has opened the way.
And as you learn to live in God's presence, something begins to change within you.
The confidence you receive before God begins shaping the courage with which you live before people.
You become more willing to stand for what is right even when it costs something.
You become more willing to defend someone who is being mistreated.
You become more willing to say no when others pressure you toward something destructive.
You become more willing to admit when you are wrong.
You become more willing to forgive.
You become more willing to serve without needing recognition.
You become more willing to speak about Christ without being ashamed.
Courage before the world grows from confidence before God.
Some of you may feel pressure to have your entire future figured out.
You may wonder what career you should pursue, where you should live, whom you might marry, what your calling is, what you should study, or what your life will look like ten years from now.
You do not need to know your entire future in order to walk faithfully today.
You need to know the One who holds your future.
God may not show you the entire road.
Usually, He doesn't.
He often gives enough light for the next faithful step.
So bring your future into His presence.
Ask for wisdom.
Listen to Scripture.
Seek counsel from mature believers.
Pay attention to the gifts and opportunities God has given you.
And trust Him.
Your future is not something you must carry alone.
Perhaps one of the greatest truths you can learn while you are young is that Christianity is not primarily about trying harder to impress God.
It is about Christ.
“In Him.”
Those words change everything.
In Him, sinners receive forgiveness.
In Him, strangers become members of God's household.
In Him, the guilty find mercy.
In Him, the fearful discover courage.
In Him, the lost are brought home.
In Him, the spiritually dead receive life.
In Him, those who were far away are brought near.
And in Him, you may enter God's presence with boldness and confidence.
So young people, do not spend your life standing outside a door Christ has already opened.
Come near.
When you wake tomorrow morning, come near.
When temptation is strong, come near.
When your heart is broken, come near.
When you have sinned, come near in repentance.
When you are celebrating, come near with thanksgiving.
When you are uncertain, come near seeking wisdom.
When you are afraid, come near asking for courage.
When you are lonely, come near remembering that you are seen.
When the world tells you that your worth depends upon approval, achievement, appearance, popularity, or success, come near and remember whose you are.
And when you wonder whether God truly wants you there, look again to Jesus.
Look to the cross.
Look to the empty tomb.
Remember that your access to God was purchased at a cost you could never pay and given through grace you could never earn.
The invitation stands.
Not because you have been perfect.
Not because you have figured everything out.
Not because your faith never struggles.
Not because you always know the right words.
But because of Jesus Christ.
“In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.”
Young people, there will be many doors in life you hope will open for you.
Doors to schools.
Doors to careers.
Doors to friendships.
Doors to opportunities.
Doors to dreams you have not yet imagined.
Some will open.
Others will close.
Some opportunities will come exactly as you hoped.
Others will pass you by.
But there is one door of infinitely greater importance.
Through Jesus Christ, the way into the presence of God has been opened.
You do not have to knock nervously, wondering whether the Father will recognize you.
You do not have to stand at a distance hoping you have done enough.
You do not have to earn your way inside.
Come through Christ.
Come by faith.
Come honestly.
Come humbly.
Come often.
Come with your questions.
Come with your failures.
Come with your hopes.
Come with your whole life.
Come with boldness and confidence.
The Father welcomes those who come through the Son.
And there, in the presence of God, you will discover something the world can never give and circumstances can never take away:
You are not merely wandering through life trying to find somewhere to belong.
In Christ, you have been invited home.
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