Favor from God is something we all want, pray for, and quite frankly, are desperate for. I would even venture to say that favor from God is one of my most frequently made prayer requests. It seems like not a moment of my day goes by without me reciting Psalms 5:12 (NIV) to help my soul find rest-“For surely, O LORD, You bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.”
To find favor in the eyes of the Lord is like finding a crisp $100 bill while walking into a VIP suite at the Super Bowl. It’s like running downhill with the wind at your back while your favorite song is playing. It’s like taking the first bite of that not-too-hot, not-too-cold bowl of porridge. To put it plainly, it’s phenomenal.
And the Bible is chock-full of verses that speak on God’s incomprehensible favor. To name a few…
- Psalms 90:17 (NIV), “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us-yes, establish the work of our hands.”
- Psalms 84:11 (NIV), “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”
- Psalms 30:5 (NLT), “For [God’s] anger lasts only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
But I believe we have a misconception as to what favor from God really is. Sure, it’s an incredible gift that we should all pray for day in and day out, but we must be careful not to equate favor with ease. The two are not synonyms. Just because we have the Lord’s favor does not mean that we will be skipping down a yellow brick road while whistling “I Feel Good” as we enter into His promises. Instead, what typically happens throughout the Bible is that God will grant favor to His people but still require them to take steps of faith to turn the intangible promise of favor into the physical reality of favor.
Think about David and Goliath for a moment. Can we all agree that God granted David at least a little favor when the lanky teenage shepherd faced the ferocious, undefeated, and skilled warrior whose nine foot frame towered over everyone else? David certainly agreed that this was the case when he defiantly stood before his enemy on the battlefield and proclaimed, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give all of you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:45-47, NIV).
And the coolest part of the story is that within a matter of seconds after declaring this bold statement, David put his money where his mouth was and did exactly what he said he would do-he killed Goliath and cut off his head with the giant’s own sword! That sure sounds like favor to me!
But don’t miss the fact that while David had been promised favor from the Lord of Hosts he still had to stand toe to toe with a man-killing maniac who caused even the toughest of soldiers in the Israeli army to cower in fear. God’s favor assured David a victory but the battle still had to be fought. David still had to stare up at his adversary. He still had to charge the battlefield.
In the Old Testament the Israelites learned a similar lesson as they wandered through the desert and began to take possession of the Promised Land. The Lord swore to His children that He would give them, “…every place [they] set [their] foot” in Joshua 1:3 (NIV) and guaranteed “a land flowing with milk and honey” to their forefathers hundreds of years earlier. But just because God promised them the land didn’t mean that the inhabitants would just willingly pack up their stuff and leave their country all because God gave the Israelites favor. The Israelites still had to fight for it!
Multiple times throughout this season of Israel’s history we read that opposing kings and their entire armies would march out to the battle lines to defend their land which God had already promised to give to Israel. Could you imagine staring at an opposing army that stretched as far as your eye could see and calling that “favor?” But that’s exactly what favor is-it’s seeing through our problems to see God’s promises.
God didn’t make us in the image of water, He made us in the image of His Son. Water always, always, always takes the path of least resistance to get to its destination. On the contrary, God, in the form of Jesus Christ, took the most difficult path that led Him up a hill that we now call Calvary.
Christ did not die so that we would settle for comfort and ease. He died so that we could have a divine confidence to charge into the battlefields of our jobs, marriages, and relationships knowing that God is acting favorably on our behalf.
So should you pray for favor from God? Yes. Absolutely. Every day. In every prayer. For everybody. But in order to obtain that favor you are praying for, your prayers need to grow some legs and start walking out what you’re praying out. Because, as we have said before, there is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears between an intangible promise of favor and the physical reality of that favor.
Are you willing to take the necessary steps to realize the Lord’s favor in your life?
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
