Tuesday 2 April 2013

Savour His Favour!



A very special morning to you! A long weekend and Easter break it was and I enjoyed every bit of it with a couple of activities here and there. Back to work, fully invigorated! I hope you enjoyed yours as well.  As a sequel to my last post; “A Cheerful of Fearful Look” I promised I was going to talk about Nehemiah in two subsequent posts but please permit me to talk about something I got inspired about over the weekend and I do hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me.

The five letter word called F.A.V.O.R or F-A-V-O-U-R. Favour is a common word amongst Christians and we all pray to God to favour us on a daily basis more or less like an everyday cliché. Many a times we really do not understand what the word means biblically. A little insight into it will open our eyes to see the power at work behind this word and when next we pray for favour, it would be with a better understanding of what it connotes.


The Macmillan dictionary defines favour as “something that you do for someone in order to help them” and also as “a behaviour that helps someone and gives them an advantage in an unfair way”…..Hmmmn. Whilst one may argue the unsuitable use of the word “unfair”, when you go through the bible, some instances of divine orchestration in the lives of certain people substantiate this definition and as the popular slang says favour isn’t fair, one would tend to agree that it may actually be true.

 The Bible says God blesses the righteous and surrounds them with Favour as with a shield (Psalm 5:12). So when you are righteous, a child of God, you have a shield around you automatically. Favour is the bread of the Children (Remember my Post on the Children’s bread). Favour makes what doesn't work for others work for you. Where others are refused, you are accepted, when others get a No, you get a YES.Some amazing testimonies of favour in the bible thrill me and I’m just going to mention them in order to explain what favour in the actual sense depicts and how we can tap into this amazing phenomenon every day of our lives.

So what is F.A.V.O.U.R?
  • (Eldad and Meldad)Favour is when a blessing is kept for someone who is absent at a gathering when some of those who are present have not finished receiving theirs. Look at the example of Eldad and Medad in the Bible.  Numbers 11: 26- However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 
  • (Mary)Favour is when the Most High, Almighty God looks down on earth and singles out a lady from an obscure town in Galilee to become the Mother of the Messiah of the world.  In fact the angel called her “highly favoured!
Luke 1: 26- In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.
  • (Isaac)Favour is when someone sows in a land where there is acute famine and He reaps a hundred fold. A foreigner in a land that has a king and He became so wealthy that the people began to envy Him. Genesis 26: 12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. 13The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him
  • (Daniel)Favour is when a slave becomes ten times better than the magicians and enchanters of an entire kingdom and none was found to be his equal. Daniel 1: 9 -Now God had caused the official to show favour and compassion to Daniel
  • (Esther)Favour is when a slave girl becomes the First lady of one of the greatest nations in the world back then and not only that, she became the source of deliverance for her people. Esther 2:17- Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other    women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 
  • (Noah)Favour is when God decides to wipe out the world by flood and He singles out a man with his family and they did not perish. Genesis 6: 8 -But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
  • (David)Favour is when a prophet goes to a man’s house with the intention of anointing one of his eight sons and yet the qualified one was the last child who was forgotten, tending the sheep at the backside of the desert. None could sit until they went to fetch and bring him into the house.1st Samuel 16:11-So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”
  This same Favour was in operation when a man is spared after He committed adultery and murder, God calls him a man after my heart and gives Him a sure covenant and yet the one who committed a sin of disobedience had the kingdom taken away from him (Saul)
  • (Paul)Favour is when a man who was the greatest persecutor of the church of God and even played a major role is the murder of one of the early disciples(Stephen)  got converted and became one of the greatest apostles of all times, writing about two-thirds of the New Testament.
  • (Joseph)Favour is what brings a man from the Pit to Potiphar’s house to the Prison and then to the Palace, ultimately handing him the position of the Prime Minister (the greatest besides the King of Egypt).
  • (Samuel)Favour is what makes a small boy hear God’s voice when the old prophet himself wasn't hearing the voice again. 1st Samuel 2:26 -And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men.
  • (Moses)Favour is what makes God like a person so much that when His siblings were grumbling behind his back ,one of them was struck with leprosy for 7 days!  . Numbers 12: 1Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite…. 5 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
  • (Solomon)Favour is what makes the product of a sinful affair between David and Bathsheba become the greatest ,wealthiest and wisest king of Israel.1st King 3: 12-I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honour—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings
  • (Moses)Favour is what makes a man who had been a murderer in a particular land; come back to the same land as a god and nothing about the offence is EVER mentioned. He became the greatest deliverer and prophet of his time. Exodus 2: 12- Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…………..Exodus 3: 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.

So if you think these are biblical examples and wonder if we can have striking examples of favour in reality, then I would say Favour is what made a Nelson Mandela become President of South Africa after being incarcerated in prison for 27 years, Favour made General Obasanjo President of Nigeria for another 8 years after he had been remanded in prison and was released in 1998 when in similar circumstances M.K O Abiola never made it to the helm of affairs but died in prison in the same year Obasanjo was released. Favour gave President Barack Obama what was eventually considered a landslide victory after a tough election in November 2012 when almost everyone had thought he was going to lose.

What more can I say? God is the Master Favour giver; He favours His own. These biblical examples are outstanding testimonies of blessings that came to people who more or less didn't qualify for it but because they had a God whose specialty is qualifying the unqualified, they got it. Even our Lord Jesus, the Son of the Most High Himself had favour with God and with man because He needed it(Luke 2:52). Favour is so much needful for us to run our course in life! I have enjoyed God's favour in immense ways and I look forward to having much more.

Don’t dare look down on yourself; His Favour is available for you to Savour!

Great Favour for you now and always!

The Pen……



2 comments:

  1. Yes, I know about favor. I recognize it..God's favor always surrounds me like a shield always. God loves me so so much. Glory to His name!

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  2. I can write an epistle about His favour in my life. Awesome God! Thanks MyWorldYourWorld!

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