FINDING LASTING FAVOR WITH GOD
The biblical Word of God says: “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give [favor] you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4)– “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God…not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2)–“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33).
GOD FAVORED A GENTILE WOMAN WHO DELIGHTED IN THE GOD OF ISRAEL
Ruth was a Moabite woman who chose to worship “the God of Israel” with the Lord’s people. And God blessed and favored her to be an ancestor of his Son Jesus Christ. When Ruth’s Israelite husband died, she followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to Israel. Ruth told her, “your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).
In Israel, Ruth met a man named Boaz, who reverenced “the God of Israel.” According to the custom of Israel Boaz became her guardian. When she knelt before him in the rich field God had given him, She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
Boaz replied: “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
“May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. (Ruth 2:10-13)
Later, Boaz married Ruth. God favored them with a son named Obed, who was an ancestor of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world (Ruth 4:14, 17; Matthew 1; John 3:16).
The case of Ruth shows that by associating with people who have a loving relationship with God, may lead to one having their own loving relationship with God. Then one learns that God works all things together for good for those who love the Lord (Romans 8:28).
GOD FAVORED AN ISRAELITE WOMAN WHO SOUGHT HIM FOR FORGIVENESS
Jesus was invited to a Pharisee’s house for dinner, when a woman known to be sinner came with an expensive container of perfume. She knelt at the feet of Jesus, and “began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”
Jesus favored the woman who acknowledged her many sins and demonstrated her love and obeisance, by the Lord saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:36-50).
However, Jesus said to some others who were seeking him primarily for temporal things of the world, “do not labor for the [things] which perishes, but for the [things] which endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27).
When anyone repentantly confess their sins, God will favor them by eternally forgiving all their sins (1 John 1:9).
THE LORD GOD FAVORS US ETERNALLY FOR BELIEVING AND BECOMING HIS DISCIPLE
Jesus said, do not seek him, as some do, primarily for things of the world “which perish,” but seek him for things of heaven “which endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27). The biblical Word of God shows that when we seek God according to the following principles, he favors us now and eternally:
- God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)
- When you repent and believe in Jesus Christ, who loves you enough to have died for your sins on a cross, God favors you with his forgiveness (Romans 5:8; 1 John 1:9).
- When you take up your cross and follow Jesus, the Lord says you become his disciples (Matthew 16:24).
- When you are forgiven of you sins, God favors you by giving you the Holy Spirit to dwell in you and be your helper (John 14:15-17).
- Being born again of God’s Spirit, he supplies all of your needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19); and gives you the desires of you heart (Psalms 37:4).
- He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
- Jesus said, whoever gives up anything for his sake, will “receive a hundred times as much in this present age…and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:30).
- When you love the Lord God with all your heart, and your neighbor as the Lord loves you, God favors you as “children of God” (Luke 10:27; John 13:34).
Our Lord and Savior has a crown of righteous, and is preparing a place in heaven for us who loves and obey him, to live with God forever (2 Timothy 4:8; John 14:2-3),
