Welcome to “Going Deeper with the Word.” In this segment, we welcome people of all backgrounds, religious or not, to review the Word of God. The Word of God provides guidance, direction, and instructions for living our lives and walking with God.
Today, we examine how God’s Word provides clear guidance and direction about God’s favor.
Let’s review examples from God’s Word that can lead and guide our steps and back up the principles we learned in today’s message. I will read scripture today from the Amplified Bible.
If you are watching this message online, we invite you to share your comments as we review each verse.
Here is our first verse.
“For You, O Lord, bless the righteous man [the one who is in right standing with You]; You surround him with favor as with a shield.”
Psalm 5:12
We clearly see King David making reference to God’s favor as a shield. We touched on a few examples of this today: God’s favor being a proactive measure in ways that we may not even consider.
First, He protects us in our workplace from people who mean harm to us. For example, those who may seek to sabotage our work.
Second, He protects us in relationships. We may feel in our hearts and minds that someone has good intentions, but God knows otherwise. God’s favor will manifest as protection from this individual. This could be causing you to notice something that allows you to distance yourself from them, or revealing something you didn’t know before that gives you the guidance to walk away. It may even be facilitating a breakup to protect you from harm. In the case of a breakup, it may seem painful at the time, and you may very well feel heartbroken, but in the big picture, God is protecting you from what He knows is imminent harm.
In both of these examples, God’s favor protects us from those who seek to harm us.
Can you recall a situation where a relationship ended and you didn’t understand why at first, but learned later that ending the relationship protected you from harm? “Let us know in the comments”
Let’s have a look at another verse.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord bestows grace and favor and honor;
No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Psalm 84:11
In this second passage from King David, we see favor mentioned alongside grace and honor, and that these things come to those who walk uprightly in the eyes of God. In fact, we see the language “no good thing will be withheld.”
As I mentioned today, when we sincerely seek a relationship with God, we will see Him actively working in our lives. When we choose to turn away from the ways of the world and toward God, we open ourselves up to an entirely new way of living where God seeks to shower us with His love—which includes grace, favor, and honor, as mentioned in this passage.
Can you think of 5 ways that you know God reveals Himself to you, be it through favor, grace, or honor. “Let us know in the comments”
Let’s look at one last verse.
Our fathers also brought it in [with them into the land] with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, [and so it remained here] until the time of David, who found favor (grace, spiritual blessing) in the sight of God and asked that he might [be allowed to] find a dwelling place for the [b]God of Jacob.
Acts 7:45-46
In this verse, we see another outcome of favor that we didn’t focus much on today, but I think needs to be mentioned. When we seek out a truly intimate relationship with God, which in turn allows us to witness and experience His favor in our lives, this favor often results in a change of our own hearts to seek to do more to honor Him.
I can speak to my own experience here. I see God’s favor throughout the day, every day, so many times a day. Circumstances completely outside of my control are blessed with favor, and seeing how God makes a way to show me His influence has certainly affected my own heart and desire to serve Him in and through this ministry.
In this verse, we see David’s true desire to build a temple for the Lord. While this was not in God’s plan, it does reveal the effect favor can have on our hearts and minds.
How does God’s favor in your life affect your desire to honor and serve Him? “Let us know in the comments”
When we seek out a true, sincere, intimate relationship with God, we stand to experience an entirely new way of life—a life that is touched by God’s favor.
While we cannot possibly know or understand God’s unbounded love for us, He does seek to show us this love through favor over many areas of our lives.
Thank God for the favor that is revealed in your life today!
We look forward to exploring more in our series, The Grand Narrative. Be sure to tune in for our final message of the series when we explore how to find your role in God’s story for your life.
God bless you, and we look forward to joining you on the next message.
