Understanding the Favor of God

We can find the favor of God in some relatively basis steps. When we:

1-Love Him.

2-Listen To Him.

3-Do What He Says.

Consider the benefits of loving the Lord, listening to Him, and doing what He says. There are many examples in the Bible that teach us how and why we should conduct our lives in this manner.

First, He has loved us enough to save us:

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (ESV).

Then, let’s look at how He cares for those who love Him. I’d like to point out just three in this article.

1. God allows us to have knowledge ahead of time for things that will come, so that we can be prepared. “For the Lord does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets,” Amos 3:7 (ESV). Consider, what’s it like when we have foreknowledge of a hurricane coming, so that we can stock up food, get a generator, board the windows, or evacuate and move to higher ground if needed. This is the way in which the Lord watches out for those who are His, and cares for them and shows them His favor. Otherwise, those who do not heed the warning or listen to the advice and instructions of the Lord, carry on and suffer the dire consequence. Consider how Joseph the father of Jesus was awakened and instructed by an angel of the Lord, in Matthew 2:13 (ESV), “Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”  God will give us instruction, if we will listen and respond.
2. God also cares for us in supernatural ways, by getting the needed resources to us. Consider the account of Elijah in 1 Kings 17:2-16 (NIV), and how God took care of him. The Word of the Lord came to Elijah and said for him to leave where he was, and go eastward and hide in a ravine, and then He gave him instruction, “You will drink from the brook and I have instructed the ravens to supply you with food there,” 1 Kings17:2 (NIV).  The next verse is the key for Elijah to experience the favor that God was giving him. In verse 3 it says, “So he did what the Lord told him.” That is the what we need to understand! We must do what the Lord tells us to do.
3. God provides for us shelter and He shields us in order to accomplish the purposes He has for us. Psalm 91:2 says, “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Consider how Moses in Exodus 2, was placed in a basket and shielded from the fate of the other young baby boys his age at that time, who were being killed at birth and thrown into the Nile River. Because of the fear of the Lord that the midwives had and His Levite mother had of God, she did not follow instructions to kill that went against her beliefs (Ex. 1:16 and 22). This obedience to the Lord was honored and favored, and allowed Moses to fulfill his destiny and the purpose of leading God’s people out of bondage. God has power to preserve, shield, and provide life-sustaining solutions.

May the Lord give you a boldness today to love Him, listen to Him and do what He says, and to remember to … not complain against Him, like the people in the wilderness, who did not inherit the promised land!

Be blessed today to walk in the favor and approval of God!