Finding God's Favor

And coming in, [Gabriel] said to [Mary], "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God." (Luke 1:28-30)

There is something here I don't want to miss. Something very deep inside of me intensely resonates with desire to personally find whatever this means – the favor of God.

For most of my life I have struggled to please God, to find His favor, often to appease Him. In my early years it was mostly about appeasement because so many fears and misapprehensions about Him darkened my mind and heart. Oh, I wasn't some heathen far away from 'the truth' with no knowledge about God. Far from it, I was raised in much 'truth' and I was loaded with advanced information about all sorts of biblical knowledge distilled from many years of research by the pioneers of our faith.

But when it came to knowing God personally and perceiving His goodness, His compassion, His tenderness, His kindness (which by the way is meant to lead me to repentance according to Paul) I had very little of that kind of knowledge. About all I knew was that if I didn't ferret out every last sin in my life and convince Him to forgive me, that God would in the end 'discover' that one little fault or unconfessed sin and use it against me in His day of judgment.

I now shudder at how close to the character of the great accuser became the view of God in my own heart back then. And I still shudder at how much residual from those monstrous ideas still linger in my heart yet today even though I have been blessed with so much fresh truth about Him that totally counters all of those lies. But God is still faithful as He always will be and is continuing the work He has begun in me and will not relent until He has purged all these lies about Him out of my system and restores me to the full joy of His salvation. Praise His name!

So I come back to pondering this thing about the favor of God found in the words of Gabriel. Just a few verses before this Elizabeth exclaimed in wonder over the way God suddenly treated her with extreme favor. Other passages also come to mind such as when the angels appear before the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus and sing to them that that day of the Lord's favor has arrived.

But I too am troubled by what sort of salutation this is myself. What is wrapped up in this word 'favor' anyway? I suspect it is a shortened version of the word 'favorite,' but that creates it own complications. In my normal way of thinking (which is unfortunately distorted too many times), to be someone's favorite strongly implies that they value me at the expense of other people. But somehow this doesn't fit into what I am now learning about God. In fact, this notion directly contradicts other places that explicitly declare that God doesn't play the favorites game. So what is Gabriel talking about here?

There are other stories in the Bible that speak of people finding favor in the eyes of God. (Just now I did a simple word search to find where people found God's favor and uncovered a rich treasure of resources and insights that could keep me feeding for a long time. I am now beginning to see many more connections between passages that help to explain each other as the Bible always tends to do. I will include the references I just found at the end of this piece.)

One thing that I find compelling about favor is that Moses seems to be the one most obsessed over living in the favor of God. Even when he gets upset because his own compassion for the ungrateful, sorry bunch of rebels he is caring for is wearing him out, he insists God is not giving Moses favor. It is almost like favor is the pivotal element of their relationship around which everything else revolved. When Moses doesn't feel God's favor on him he refuses to move another inch.

It would be easy to miss what I sense is an important insight about God's favor by simply assuming that the people listed in the Bible really were somehow more valuable in God's sight than the rest of us. It is easy to assume that in spite of declarations to the contrary, God might just play a favorites game after all. The devil is quick to reinforce that notion to tear us away from trusting God by insinuating that we are not one of His favorites. But this is yet another lie of the enemy that I need to face head-on and expose it for the fraud that it really is.

But still my heart longs to know the favor of God even more than my head wants to figure out the right answer. What is this thing called favor and how can I begin to experience it for real personally?

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism."

(Acts 10:34 NIV)

If God is not the one choosing who is going to be His favorites, yet it appears that certain people are observed as having God's favor, then about the only thing left must be that finding God's favor is determined by our own choice. This fits perfectly with everything else I have been learning about God's character over the past few years. He is not arbitrary or partial but rather is passionate to have a genuine and intimate relationship with any who are ready and willing to engage His heart.

Another text that comes to my attention in regard to this is found in the faith chapter. And that makes perfect sense since trust (the real definition of faith) is vital to having any sort of healthy relationship with anyone. If I want to not only understand but to enter into an experience of knowing God's favor myself, I have to discover how to get there from here by learning how to find His favor.

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

I really like the way another version puts this even more clearly.

You see, it's impossible to please Him well without faith. Because, whoever wants to come to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who are eagerly searching for Him. (2001)

This verse has stimulated my heart for years as an important key to understand for having a real relationship with God. It states two simple but inescapable principles that must be realized if one is ever to enter into a kind of saving faith relationship similar to those listed in the rest of this chapter.

I must be willing to believe that God even exists to start with or everything else is hypocrisy. When one thinks about that logically it makes sense of course. But how because my head has been taught that God is real I assume my heart believes it too. Yet what I have been sensing more and more is that what is going on at the heart level can be very different from what I believe with my intellectual capacities. Yet it is my heart's beliefs that have far more influence over my eternal destiny than the assumed beliefs acquired by my head through typical education.

It is this heart-level kind of faith or trust that I find so much more difficult to manage and even impossible to control. I cannot force my heart, or anyone else's for that matter, to believe anything. I can certainly do and say things that have great influence over what my heart feels and believes, but the opinions of the heart can only be controlled through indirect influence. But then that is the nature of love isn't it? If we could control love by our intellect it would lose most of its charm and attraction.

The problem arises when we realize how difficult it is to believe in an invisible being that says He wants an intimate relationship with us. We usually have little problem feeling attracted toward having intimacy with another human being that we can see and maybe even touch. The closer we come to another attractive person the more intense the attraction can become. But how can we better sense the drawing power of an invisible God who insists that His love is exponentially more intense for us than any earthly lover we might ever encounter?

It appears that we somehow have to perceive Him with some kind of senses enough to convince our heart that He is real and that He longs to connect with our heart. And while this may not come easy for many of us, it seems to be vital in the process of salvation, being restored to the kind of relationship with God that Adam and Eve originally enjoyed without any inhibitions. But I am reminded that part of this process of restoration requires that I cooperate with His drawing influences on my heart. And that means I must be willing to expose myself and respond to His romancing gestures towards me while increasingly tuning out everything else that dulls my capabilities to appreciate His love for me.

The second part of this verse from Hebrews is just as important as the first. Not only must I begin by choosing to believe that God actually exists, but at least just as importantly I must somehow change my heart's opinions about what kind of God He is like. That requires a transformation away from the influence of the many lies about Him that have so saturated this planet for six thousand years. I must become willing to embrace the truth in this verse that, to anyone who choses to pursue a real relationship with Him He will respond and will reward them richly for their efforts.

Even while I am writing these words, my own heart is right now contemplating the powerful implications of these revelations. I feel my heart yearning to experience this kind of faith, this far deeper level of intimate trust with Someone who actually cares about me deeply, who unconditionally loves me and is fiercely loyal to our relationship no matter what happens or what anyone else may say or think about me or even how badly I may mess it up myself.

I desperately need this kind of transforming intimacy and trusting relationship with a heart who not only cares about me but also has the resources, power and passion to actually change me with this kind of love. Yet I find that the closer I get to love the more afraid I become many times. But no surprise there, for nearly every time God showed up or His messengers came to relay love messages from Him to His children, they almost always had to be instructed not to be afraid.

Sin has hard-wired us to be afraid of real love, even while desperately longing for it. We have been conditioned to be afraid of God by the myriads of lies circulation about Him. But I like that this verse gives such a short list of things I need to work on to open the door to learning to live in love. I just need to be willing to believe that God is real no matter what protests, objections or excuses may arise from any direction, and I must increasingly believe the real truth about Him, that He is consistently good and kind and gracious and compassionate and is not at all like His enemies (and too many of His friends, sad to say) have made Him out to be. That is how I can come to believe that He rewards those who are serious about wanting an intimate relationship with Him.

What is starting to emerge in recent years from exploration of the larger picture of what is really going on, is that all of Satan's accusations against God are designed to do one thing – get others to stop trusting God's heart. All the other problems and sin and dysfunction Satan has caused all flow from this one issue. When we do not trust that God is totally love, then believing that He is less than pure love sets us up as vulnerable to any number of other lies that only increase sin. So it just makes sense that to be restored to a relationship where we can please God and can love Him again, we have to start by believing the truth about Him so that trust can be awakened in our own hearts. For without trust it is impossible to have any kind of meaningful or rewarding relationship with anyone.

If I desire to pursue a love relationship with Him, this verse implies He will reward every effort I make in His direction. In fact, I have been told that even the desires I feel inside to even want to move in His direction all come from the promptings of His Spirit working within me to motivate me in His direction while on the other side He is eagerly moving as close to me as I will allow Him to come.

So again, what does it mean to find God's favor? I am starting to see this is not a decision or relationship that God determines but rather happens when I give Him permission to lavish His favor on me by my choosing to enter into this relationship that He longs to have with me.

Moses was not a favorite of God just because God arbitrarily decided to pick him and make him more important than everyone else. And while God's foreknowledge of who will respond to Him allows Him to predict such relationships ahead of when they even occur, in truth any one of us can enter into the same level of intimacy with God as did Moses if we would only be willing to allow God as much access to our own hearts as did Moses.

The clearest illustration of the kind of intimacy that God's wants each of us to experience with Him is the example of Jesus, the Son of God. We often think of Jesus as in a class of His own because we assume it was easier for Him because He was already God. But that thinking actually prevents us from learning the very lesson He came to show us. Jesus did not come to live as God on earth and parade around to live a perfect life to show us how sinful we are by contrast. No, Jesus came laying aside every advantage He had as God to become a vulnerable human being just like us while showing us how to live in total dependence on His Father's passionate love and care for Him every moment of His life. By living in total dependence on a divine power outside of Himself rather than depending on His own power even for a moment, He demonstrated that any of the children of Adam could also live in a saving relationship with the Father who could also keep them from sinning.

Jesus lived out Hebrews 11:6 and demonstrated to the universe what can happen if a weak human being lives believing that God exists and that He rewards all who eagerly seek Him. Jesus passionately pursued God's heart each morning and at many other times in order to stay vitally connected to the only Source of all life. In doing so He showed how we too can live free, living and thriving as we increasingly experience the transforming power of God's goodness changing us back into perfect reflections of His glory. This is what I believe it means to find God's favor.

I believe the reason Gabriel told Mary that she was highly favored was because she was a person who had been passionately pursuing an intimate knowledge of God for herself. In reality, Gabriel's message to her was not all that different than what he had said to Zacharias, in that her prayers for a deeper intimacy with God had been heard and were answered. God was looking for a young lady with this kind of attitude to be the mother for His own Son, and Mary was the woman who was so hungry for God's heart that He could trust her to be a mother who would humbly cooperate with His Spirit.

The good news is that God's favor is available for anyone who will choose to believe that He favors them. Maybe that is why the Bible speaks of people who 'find' His favor. It is not about somehow being selected arbitrarily to be a winner of some 'heavenly favor lottery' and becoming His chosen. Rather it is coming to discover that God is so much more loving and passionate than we ever dared to imagine before as He draws us to His heart. As we give Him our hearts He makes us His 'favorites.' And in so doing we discover not only His favor but we begin to enjoy all the riches of His glory.

Father, train my heart to favor You above every other attraction. I want to discover Your favor, not to think I have to somehow earn it, but to simply embrace the reality that You already have favor for me.

Noah – The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:7-8)

Abraham – When [Abraham] lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, "My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by." (Genesis 18:2-3)

Lot – When they had brought them outside, one said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away." But Lot said to them, "Oh no, my lords! Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;" (Genesis 19:17-19)

Moses – Then Moses said to the LORD, "See, You say to me, 'Bring up this people!' But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send with me. Moreover, You have said, 'I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.' "Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people." And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?" The LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name." Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!" (Exodus 33:12-18)

Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession." Then God said, "Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day...." (Exodus 34:8-11)

When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it. Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the LORD, "Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers'? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, 'Give us meat that we may eat!' I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness." (Numbers 11:9-15)

Gideon – The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior." Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian." The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." But the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man." So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me." (Judges 6:12-17)

David – David found favor in God's sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. (Acts 7:46)

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Colossians 1:9-10)

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. (Deuteronomy 10:17)

For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:11)

And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him. (Ephesians 6:9)