Psalms 8:4-6 (NASB) What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
There are times in my life, even fleeting moments throughout the day, I believe I do not have God’s favor. Generally speaking, these thoughts do not linger long. I converse with my Lord, consult His word and thoughts of His favor are restored. I imagine a great many of you fall victim to thoughts of falling from or never being in God’s favor. If you are a born again child of the Living God, those are lies born straight from the pits of hell. Satan is assaulting you. He’s manipulating you.
The truth…
II Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
The truth is, that He loves and favors you so much more highly than anything else, including Himself. He gave up everything. He gave His Son over to the cruelty and abject poverty of this world, and watched Him surrender His very life blood on the cross. For who? You ARE a favored son/daughter of God! To believe you are not favored is to buy into satan’s lie.
Blessings are an indicator of favor with the Lord and many, myself included, would say, “well then if I’m favored, where are my blessings? If I’m favored why does he/she receive blessing x,y,z and I don’t. Look at my life! Only a fool would suggest that I’m favored by God.” Firstly, I would start my rebuttal with, take an honest, sincere, Christlike evaluation of your life and tell me you are not blessed. Secondly, I would suggest we take a look at a passage in Matthew 25, verses 14-30. In this passage we see Jesus teaching through the parable of the talents. He gives each man stewardship over 5, 2 and 1 talent based on each man’s ability. The one who stewards well is rewarded with greater blessing and responsibility. The one who doesn’t has his blessing rescinded.
“For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
This passage leads me to believe that, in part, the bountifulness of our blessing/favor results from how we handle and steward what we have already been blessed with. If we steward well, God can trust us again, and again and again. This also requires a degree of gratitude and a large helping of humility. Big or small, great or mini, the blessings are His to do with as He wishes.
He favors each and every one of us, but can He trust us to do what is right with the blessing He would bestow, and would we use said blessings to advance His kingdom for His glory? So, let’s take a step back, where in your life has God blessed you? How did you receive it? To what use did you put it? Can He trust you again? Can He trust you further? Still think you’re not a favored son/daughter of the LIVING GOD?!!! Have a blessed weekend
In full pursuit of the greatest Trophy,
Scott Pace
