Focus on Favor

 Sam and I have been learning about living in the favor of God.  Favor doesn't mean that life is charmed or everything goes smoothly or we never have troubles and trials.  What God's favor means is living with the constant awareness of God's bias towards me and trusting that my Divine Advantage is not removed in difficult circumstances.  When confronted with tough, uncomfortable, or frustrating situations, my unshakable faith in God's favor for me leads me to ask, not "Why?", but "What does this mean?", "What do I do?", and "What do You want to be for me in this?".  God always has good and victorious intentionality for us in every situation.  The focus must be on the real issue behind every issue: our relationship with God.  How does He want to upgrade my experience of Him?  How does He want to show His character to me in this?  Discovering the answer to those questions will provide powerful purpose and focus to endure almost anything, standing in the faithfulness of His nature and unrelenting love for me.

As I contemplate this theme, I am reminded of Mary.  The angel greets her with a declaration that she is favored of God, then proceeds to describe how this favor will show up in her life:  she gets to bear the Son of God!  Only catch is that she will conceive before marriage and not by her husband, a very troubling situation to a pious young woman.  Have you ever wondered at Mary's unshakable confidence in her right-ness throughout the process of people discovering her pregnancy, deciding to divorce her, shunning and slandering her, etc.?  I used to think it must've just been a supernaturally enhanced personality trait she had.  But now I understand...she had a revelation of God's ultimate intention in the situation: the Son of God, Savior of the world, being born to a virgin as prophesied!  That revelation of what God was doing in and through her gave her the ability to focus on the great favor of her spiritual position instead of the earthly "reality" of slander, misunderstanding, and shame.  Wow. 

Likewise, Jesus endured the unknowable shame and pain of our blame and our death, how?  Because of the joy set before Him!  Even in the moment of death, Jesus trusted in His favorable standing with God.  He looked into the eyes of His Father and saw His intentionality for the situation: that God would be Life for Him after death, and He would not only walk again Himself in victorious life, but would always lead us in triumph as well!  The thought of this relationship I have right now with Him was so joyful to Him that it gave God Himself the focus to endure His toughest trial!  Wow Wow Wow! 

So what does this mean for my life?  Everything!  For every situation in my life God has a corresponding intention:  something He wants to give to me, something He wants to be for me, something He wants to do through me.  It is essential that I look into His eyes to discover the intention in His heart, commit myself to partnering with Holy Spirit towards that intention, and never lose focus of His relentless love towards me! 

Aah!  This is a worthy goal and pursuit!
Blessings!
Sarah

P.S.  Alot of these thoughts have been fueled by Graham Cooke's teachings.  I highly recommend his material to anyone desiring to go deeper in the things of God!  www.grahamcooke.com