How many times have you found yourself going to God asking Him for a favor or better yet asking Him to do something for you? Maybe instead of saying, "I need a favor Lord"….how bout, "Lord, I need some favor". Did you know that as a child of God you already have His favor. The dictionary defines favor as to show preferential treatment, to give advantage to another, and to give special favors. As a mother I don’t think that there is anything that I would hold back from my children and grandchildren should they ask me for it. As a matter of fact, I love to show them my favor. I will even go as far to say, that I live to show them favor…that is how much I adore my children.
Well you can be assured that if we love our children and want to give them good gifts and do them favors, then how much more does our Heavenly Father want to do those things for us.
The Bible say’s in Luke 2:52 …and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.
Jesus had all the favor of His Father and according to the scriptures concerning His life, He learned to posses that favor. The scripture says that as He grew in wisdom and stature….He also grew in God’s favor as well as the favor of men. That tells me that Jesus found favor along His way…with men as well as with His father.
God wants us to have His favor and will allow us to have the favor of others when we seek to do the right things. Many times we have misplaced our focus and stop showing or giving favor ourselves and in turn loose the favor of others. We need only to take our eyes off ourselves and place it back on others as it was meant to be. Jesus spent His entire life focused on the needs and concerns of others, not Himself. He knew that to posses God and man’s favor He had to express it himself. I think maybe we get off course when something happens to distract us. Instead of offering to do a good deed for others we withhold our blessing from them because they are not blessing us. When this happens, we just need to shake it off and put on our big girls panties and move on….pardon the panties part but I do love that expression. Because when we withhold our love and blessing from someone, we are hurting ourselves more than anyone else!
The Bible say’s in Luke 2:52 …and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.
Jesus had all the favor of His Father and according to the scriptures concerning His life, He learned to posses that favor. The scripture says that as He grew in wisdom and stature….He also grew in God’s favor as well as the favor of men. That tells me that Jesus found favor along His way…with men as well as with His father.
God wants us to have His favor and will allow us to have the favor of others when we seek to do the right things. Many times we have misplaced our focus and stop showing or giving favor ourselves and in turn loose the favor of others. We need only to take our eyes off ourselves and place it back on others as it was meant to be. Jesus spent His entire life focused on the needs and concerns of others, not Himself. He knew that to posses God and man’s favor He had to express it himself. I think maybe we get off course when something happens to distract us. Instead of offering to do a good deed for others we withhold our blessing from them because they are not blessing us. When this happens, we just need to shake it off and put on our big girls panties and move on….pardon the panties part but I do love that expression. Because when we withhold our love and blessing from someone, we are hurting ourselves more than anyone else!
One of the saddest sorrows to bear is to witness the awful changes that take place in Christians who go sour or hard or even feel the burn ourselves from the sting that it imparts on our own soul as we ourselves experience the lack of favor with God. These may be believers who at one time were on fire for God, dedicated and zealous for His work…happy, blessed, growing in faith, maturing spiritually. Then one day you began to sense that something has gone wrong. A frown has replaced a smile. Suddenly they stopped growing and even seem to be going backwards instead of forward in their spiritual walk; spiritual decay sets in and they find themselves walking around in a pool of sorrow which before long turns into pity.
The book of Haggai is a marvelous lesson on how to get and keep the blessing and favor of the Lord. In utter simplicity the prophet Haggai outlines how God's children can live and walk under God's continual blessing and favor. You see living and walking is an ongoing experience. You will find in the pages of this great book the wonderful truth about how God blesses those who walk in faithfulness…He shows favor to those who favor Him.
Now I said in the first paragraph that I long to show favor to my children. Yet I can assure you that if my children were to begin to turn from their family to seek wrong things that would destroy all that is right and good in their lives, then I am afraid that I would withhold any favor from them as long as I knew that they were desiring to seek and do wrong and cause great pain to their family.
God’s Word teaches that while He gives us better than we deserve, He will withhold His favor and blessings when we turn from doing His will to fulfill the lust of our flesh….and that does not imply to sexual sin only but to all sins of the flesh.
The favor that God offers is the favor that we all seek. God's favor is brought about through obedience to God and love for one another. May God honor you with His favor today...as you seek to do His will in and through your life.
Loving you today!
Bren
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