Favor is the expression of the God's grace that accomplishes God's purpose for His glory and our good...The favor of God doesn't necessarily bring comfort and ease to my life.
Consider the stories of Noah, Abram, Moses, Joseph, David, Ruth, Esther, Mary and Jesus who all found favor with God AND had great challenges and what many of us would consider unbearable circumstances to endure.
The person I pondered today was Mary, the mother of Jesus. When God "highly favored" her, she became an unwed mother. In her culture this brought shame on her and her whole family. Furthermore, her son was killed by the government in a horrific manner before her eyes. She most likely bore the unkind, even hateful stigma of people around her every day after God favored her. Her life did bring glory to God and I am certain if she could tell us today about her life, she would say every minute was worth it because of the joy she has now.
I must admit I don't have what it takes (yet) to live and embrace such a highly favored life. I am pondering and wrestling with that today. Will you?
Will walk this journey with you, my friend. That's scary to say because of the unknown part, but I KNOW we can rest in the assurance that it will be for "His glory and our good". I know in my life, the hardest roads to travel have brought the greatest sense of thanksgiving, in retrospect. No other way would I have experienced His faithfulness...
ReplyDeleteLinda, as i read this all I could think is that This is the reason God does not directly tell us what is coming in our lives. If some one told Mary a year before all that happened, I very highly doubt that she would have answered as cooly as she did when it was all actually happening. What i also think is that you do have what it takes, mostly because in the heat of the moment you have all of your life and the Holy Spirit behind you and you will rise up and be awesome! Mostly cause I think you are awesome, but also because if I look back on my little life and stuff that has happened to those around me, when God's favor came down on them they reacted more amazingly that I would have previously thought. hope I am not rambeling
ReplyDeleteWell framed, Linda. I do long for and prize God's favor, yet I am not as likely to see it from this point of view. Thanks.
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