“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God…Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Hebrews 4:14,16 (NIV)
It was December of 2023 that I applied for Jon’s disability through a phone conversation with a Social security agent. The next step was to send the application to state headquarters where a case worker would be assigned.
A resident at the Nursing Home used to tell me that no one will get disability without the help of an attorney, and he urged me to get one for Jon. I had little confidence in government systems, since we live in a flawed world, with flawed people who run those systems, but we have a perfect high priest in heaven who told us to come confidently to His throne of grace, in time of need.
So I put my confidence in God because He still has a few good people inside those bureaucratic institutions, and if we pray, He can send the right person at the right time to help us. This is the story of how Jesus interceded from His throne and did just that.
Jon was assigned a case worker named Katherine at the state headquarters in Springfield. She was kind and diligent, and when she sent a form to the Nursing home to fill out, their answers were too vague and medically inadequate for Jon’s disability to be approved.
Katherine picked up the phone and called the Nursing facility, until she found a person with enough understanding to give her the medical information needed. I thank God for her because a more apathetic person would have let his application go through the system with inadequate information and be denied.
Katherine assured me that she had all that was needed to get it approved and I would soon hear from the SS office near me.
Months went by and I never heard anything so in October of 2024, I went to my local Social Security office and learned that Jon’s application was approved but was suspended because they had no information about where to send the money, even though that info was given at the time of application.
The agent told me that a letter was supposed to be mailed to me, but they were behind in sending out letters. That explained why I was left in limbo for months, so I gave her all the information needed to finish the process and Jon received his first disability check in July of 2025. It took 19 months to move every mountain since beginning the process.
Dealing with bureaucracies on our own is kind of like finding our way through a black hole, but we have a high priest in heaven, with all authority over this world. He heard my prayers and sent the right person at the right time, to help finish the job.
We cannot place all confidence in people or government institutions but since our citizenship is in heaven, (Philippians 3:20)
we can put our full confidence in Jesus, the One who sits on the throne, to help us in our time of need.
Lord, our hope and confidence is in you, and we bring our petitions to your throne of grace, trusting in your help in time of need. Amen
