The Favour of God
by Yulia Kariuki
When something good happens to unbelievers, they call it luck, but we Christians call it a blessing and the favour of God. If we are to describe a favour of God, we can say that it is an unmerited love and unearned divine favour. We know from the story of Noah in Genesis 6, that when the Lord grieved that He had created mankind, Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord, and thus saved the entire human race.
Proverbs 12:2 says that ‘A good man obtains favour of the Lord’. So how do we obtain this favour of God? I believe that the favour of God is a gift, like salvation, something we can’t earn. We don’t deserve it, but we’re able to receive if our heart attitude is right. If we’re quick to repent when we’ve done something wrong, and if we walk in obedience and humility.
From the story of David (1 Samuel 16) we can see the favour of God on his life. When Samuel came to anoint the future king of Israel, David wasn’t even called to be looked at. Samuel looked at David’s brothers and thought that the Lord would choose one of them, but He didn’t, and only when David came from the tending the sheep did Samuel anoint him. The Lord didn’t look at the appearance, but He looked at the heart!
This tells us that the favour of God has nothing to do with our age, colour of our skin, appearance, education and talents, but it’s all about the purity of the heart. Furthermore, we read in the same chapter that David was even chosen to play the harp to Saul when evil spirits tormented his soul. David was a skilled harpist, but I believe, because of the favour on his life, his music was anointed to drive the demons away when he played.
We know that not everything in David’s life was easy, even after being anointed as a future king, he had to wait for its fulfillment for a long time. Yet we see how God’s favour was lifting him up. The Bible says in Psalm 75:6-7, that ‘promotion and power come from nowhere on earth but only from God. He promotes one and deposes another’. That’s why, after slaying Goliath, the Lord made David famous to the point that even Saul became jealous of his fame.
When our walk before the Lord is blameless, and our hearts are pure, the Bible says the Lord will bestow His favour and honour on us (Psalm 84:11). And when His favour is upon us, it glorifies His Holy name and makes people see how great He is in our lives! As Jesus grew in favour with God and man (Luke 2:52), let’s continue to do the same. Let’s continue to be humble before the Lord, acknowledging Him in all our ways, giving Him thanks for His favour in our lives in the past and in events yet to come and ‘may the favour of the Lord our God rest on us’ (Psalm 90:17).
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for loving me and for bestowing Your favour upon my life. Help me to walk blamelessly before You so that Your name would be glorified in my life, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Yulia Kariuki was born in Russia and studied translation and interpretation as her profession. She joined Ellel Ministries in 2009, after graduating from university. The same year she met her husband and Bernard and Yulia served on team for many years both in Scotland and at Ellel Grange.
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