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Can God Get Glory from My Life?
by Dominique Henderson
Favor. What causes an individual to have the “favor of God” upon their lives? Do some individuals have more of it than others? Is favor the same as anointing? All good questions that came to my mind while reading a book about this subject recently. Many people preach on how to walk in God’s favor and how to obtain God’s favor. Further it is said that by obtaining God’s favor it will translate into blessings in other areas of your life. So what is it and how is it obtained? Hopefully this devotional will center on answering that last question.
What is it?
By definition favor is simply God’s grace. I believe that some time ago, I heard Charles Stanley say that grace was God’s willingness to use his power and ability on my behalf although I don’t deserve it. (I like that definition!) If you can just begin to thing about God’s endless power working on your undeserving behalf—then you have a picture of what favor looks like. In this society, we have essentially adopted that definition for the word [English word] favor also. Think about when someone asks you for a favor. They are asking you to use your ability or sphere of influence to accomplish something to benefit them—undeserved or deserved. So now that we have grasped what favor is let’s talk more about having God’s favor and then we’ll discuss how to obtain it. God’s favor is something to be desired above all else. I just finished saying how Almighty God allows his ability to accomplish things to work on or towards our behalf. This is happening throughout the lives of his children all day and everyday. Just the other day, my flight back to the US was cancelled due to weather. The airline was willing to compensate me for my airfare by not my hotel stay as a result of the delay. So I unfortunately had to book a hotel room to catch a flight the next day. I was disappointed that I would have to pay $100 bucks to sleep in a room for 5 hours before my flight but I had no choice (and my wife ruled out spending the night in the airport!). So as I was booking my room online, I looked in my Expedia account and behold I had a coupon that reduced my cost for the hotel room to $9! I thanked God over and over for his favor. That was God working on my behalf with his power and ability although I didn’t deserve it. How did the coupon get there? I have no idea, but I do know that I serve a God that takes care of all my worries and concerns. And there are many more examples where God steps in and exercises his grace toward us. What are some of yours?
How is it obtained?
Now here comes the bible study. The favor discussed above is found in the bible (at least the New Testament) as the Greek word charis (favor, goodwill or loving-kindness originating from God). One particular example is found in Luke 2:40-52 and it describes Jesus as a child. In verse 40 it says “the grace (charis) of God was upon him” and in verse 52 it says “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor (charis) with God and men”. So I think the key to obtaining this favor from God is found in those same verses. In both of those verses it indicates that Jesus was “filled with wisdom” and “grew in wisdom”. My conclusion is that Jesus was filled with biblical wisdom because he studied the Law of God and that he was filled with academic and scholarly wisdom because he studied the laws of man. Also to be noted is that in this scripture passage (between these two verses) Jesus was being looked for by Mary and Joseph. And when they found him, he was in the synagogue discussing scripture and the law with teachers that were probably two or three times his age. So there is plenty of evidence to show that Jesus’ study habits afforded him the wisdom he possessed. And I say all that to say, that when we delight ourselves in the law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night (Psalm 1:2), then the byproduct is that we are planted like a tree by the rivers of water yielding the fruit for the particular season. Favor is obtained by studying God’s word and his precepts in order to find his will. He is more than willing to use his grace and power on our behalf when we do this. Unfortunately I can’t go through all of the biblical examples, but heroes like Joseph and Daniel where constantly experiencing God’s favor in their lives because of their devotion to his word. When we look for why God’s favor is not as evident in our lives as we would like it to be, we should take inventory of the time that we have spent with God. Have we been studying and reading the Word of God? After study, have we been meditating on it to do what his word says? As we grow in the wisdom of God, we will found our lives permeated with his grace and favor working on our behalf.
God please help me to seek to please you by obeying your word. I want my thoughts and actions to mirror meditating in your word day and night so that I might obtain your favor in my life.
Suggested Scriptures:
Favor in the life of Jesus - Luke 2:40-52
Favor in the life of Daniel and his friends - Daniel 1:9,19-21; 6:10-11,21,28
Favor in the life of Joseph- Genesis 39:2,5,9,21,23
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