Favour

Yesterday, I read that a prominent church leader had gold dust on his hands, as well as oil, as the Holy Spirit came upon him. He was predicting that a revival, in his town, was imminent. And not without good reason. God appears to be doing some incredible things.

Here I stand, having given up almost everything I have to pursue God's call for my life. I don't see the gold dust. Nor do I have the oil. Nor am I on the brink of being part of a revival. It often seems like the opposite is true. To draw one person into church, to get one person saved, seems to take unfathomable, Herculean effort.


Why does God's favour seem to rest on some and not on others?


Do some do things that 'attract' God's favour? Do others do things that 'discourage' God's favour?


Is His favour purely a product of things we do? Is favour (i) never meritoriously earned or (ii) occasionally meritoriously earned, or (iii) always meritoriously earned?


And what is His favour any way? Is His favour only understood at the End of the Ages?


All these things I was pondering as that night I read to my 5-year old daughter (as we always do) from the Bible. It just so happened that we were in Matthew 5. The day's questions were answered in a few short words from Jesus. Who gets God's favour, I had asked. Jesus' answer went like this:


Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.


Being blessed, means that God's favour is on you, that His approval is with you, that you are doing well, that you are in the right place at the right time.

Perspective.


Yet again, the ways of the Kingdom are so counter-intuitive to the ways of the flesh.