Favor With God

Whenever we move toward the Christmas season, my daughter Kelsey and I LOVE to watch the movie, “The Nativity Story.”  It’s a live-action version of the Christmas narrative.  There’s something very profound about putting flesh and blood on the stories we read in the Bible.  Words on the page come to life when we remember again that these were people – just like you and me – living out the stories we are so familiar with.

I am always amazed by Mary.  An angel appears to her, telling her that she, a virgin, will bear a child – and not just any child.  She will give birth to the long-awaited Messiah, the one who will save her people.

The angel delivers this news and Mary says yes.  Quickly.  Right away.  She didn’t hmm and haw.  She didn’t “get back to him after she’d thought about it a while”.  Mary’s immediate reply to what God sent the angel to say was, “I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38).

That just amazes me about this young woman.  Mary simply says yes.  She doesn’t allow the implications of what God has said to give her pause.  Because believe me, there were implications.

Mary lived during a time when women could be stoned for being found pregnant before they were married.  So she could face death, at the worst.  At the least, she would face rumor and gossip, being ostracized for this pregnancy.  She would face being misunderstood and doubted.  And she had to face her family.  And her fiancé.

God’s will was going to require everything from Mary.  It was going to cost her physical comfort (all the mama’s out there understand that one!)  It was going to cost her emotionally, socially, relationally – her whole life was about to be hijacked by God.

But ALL of that paled in comparison to saying yes to God.  She wasn’t ruled by fear of what man would think or say.  She was overwhelmed with the honor that God had chosen her.  And she immediately decided her life was God’s, to do with as He pleased.

There have been times in my life when I have known that the Lord has called me to do certain things.  When He has directed me in areas of obedience I need to take or things He’s wanting to accomplish in my life.  And in that moment, I wholeheartedly will say, “Lord, I give You my life.  Do with it what You want.” 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m praying that prayer to surrender to God’s will for my life, I’m surrendering to what I think God will want me to do – or what I’m hoping He will do in my life.  And that usually includes pretty fantastic things like having enough money to be able to give to people in need or God using me in a significant way in someone’s life.  You know – something grand.

But when I pray those prayers of surrender, God takes me at my word.  And He uses my life. . .on His terms, not on mine.  And sometimes – many times – grand things don’t happen.  At least not right away.  In fact, sometimes it seems like the path becomes filled with difficulties.  Just like Mary must’ve felt.

Rejection, loss and pain were all a part of Mary’s experience as God was using her life to so beautifully bring forth the Savior of the world. And that pattern is pretty consistent throughout the Bible.  People, like you and me, who said yes to God also said no to themselves – their own will and their own comfort.

It’s ultimately a tragedy that we have bought into an idea that when God is at work in our lives, it should look so easy.  We long for the lack of conflict and worldly success.  We think that if God’s in it, things should just fall into place.  Troubles are kept far from our path.  Doors just open. 

But favor from God does not look like a perfect life.  Wealth, worldly success, everyone else’s opinion of us – these are not necessarily the signs of God’s favor.

I’m not saying that there are times when those things do happen.  But I think if we were to ask Mary what God’s work in her life looked like, she would say many difficulties came with becoming the mother of the Messiah. 

In Luke 1:30, the angel told Mary that she had found favor with God.  He was about to bestow a precious responsibility upon this young woman, and He knew she was a woman who would say yes to His plan for her life.  He also knew what He was asking of Mary would require a lot from her.  Yet He asked it of her anyway, knowing His will and His plan were ultimately the best thing for her – and ultimately for the whole world. 

All the difficulties she would encounter were not a sign of not having favor with God.  In fact, she was facing all that she did BECAUSE she had found favor with God.

And it’s funny (and by funny I mean NOT FUNNY AT ALL) how when we take steps of obedience to what God is calling us to in our own lives, our lives can begin to exhibit things that seem the very opposite of favor.

Sometimes it’s that we have said yes to being the kind of man or woman God has called us to be. We’ve committed to loving our spouse the way God loves us.  We’ve determined to respond out of love instead of anger with our kids.  We’ve chosen to be a light in a dark workplace.

But then, somehow, we face rejection for standing for truth.  We try to be patient with our kids, only to have them respond badly (and usually in public!).  We set the alarm to get up early and spend time with the Lord before heading off to work and then face persecution with co-workers who don’t know God.

The difficulties we face each day can seem to be the opposite of the great things God has said He wants to work in our lives. God told Mary she would bear His Son – but then she had to ride a donkey for days on end at 9 months pregnant and give birth in a stinky barn.

If you’re having a donkey, stinky-barn kind of season in your life, then be assured, my friends – you’re in very good company.  Mary, Paul, even Jesus Himself all had days like this on this earth.

Sometimes we need to pause and ask the Lord to remind us that He is at work in our lives.  Difficulties don’t mean God isn’t with us.  And it doesn’t mean He’s not up to far greater things in us than we could even imagine. 

Each of us has found favor with God.  And when we say yes to His plan and our plans falls apart, we need to remember that truth way deep down in our souls.

In fact, like Mary, God may want to birth something through us.  More on that in the next blog…