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You need the favour of man
By admin | February 27, 2009
Not many of us would doubt that we need the favour of God in all that we do. However, one verse struck me recently and I realised that we need both the favour of God and of man.
I remember many years ago when I started my business, I was a bit disappointed with people who had volunteered to help in one way or the other, but did not keep their promise. I remember thinking to myself, as long as God was on my side, nothing else mattered.
With the benefit of hindsight, I no longer hold that view. In fact, I have turned 360º on that thought. The fact that people have disappointed does not mean that you don’t need people. I should have prayed for both the favour of God and man. In this article, we concentrate on the favour of man.
So back to the scripture in Luke 2:52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”. The same is said of the great prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:26 ‘Now the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favour with the Lord and also with man.
Let’s stop and think about this for a minute. Jesus was the perfect man. He was perfect in every way and on top of that He’s the King of Glory. He has enough power resident inside Him to make possible whatever He wanted to make possible. Yet He needed to grow in favour with man. No doubt this favour would have opened doors of ministry and life that perhaps would have been closed to Him. The point to start with is - that if Jesus needed to obtain the favour of man, so should we.
So what exactly is favour? A lot of us associate favour with preferential treatment. We associate it with the word grace. The Greek word for grace is charis. Favour simply means a kind disposition towards someone. The interesting thing is that the scriptures give us an idea of how to obtain this favour.
Proverbs 3: 3-4 “Do not let kindness and truth leave you, so you will find favour in the sight of God and man”. From these scriptures, we note that truth (absolute truth as expressed in God’s words) as well as kindness will lead to favour with both God and man.
This thought is further expressed in Proverbs 11:27 “He who diligently seeks good seeks favour”. The word ‘good’ conveys the idea of seeking the things that are pleasing to God and which brings benefits to others.
Another scripture that refers to favour is found in Proverbs 13:15 “Good understanding produces favour, but the way of the treacherous is hard”. In my ebook ‘spiritual understanding’, I explain the difference between spiritual wisdom and spiritual understanding.
The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of insight on how we can obtain favour and I would like to encourage you to study the book.
In the book of Ezra, when the Israelites returned from exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, they had the favour of Darius. When the Israelites were coming out of Egypt, God made the Egyptians so favourably towards them that they left with great possessions. The scriptures are full of people who God used to show his favour to; we should expect nothing less in our lives. Favour will make us succeed when others fail. Joseph had favour with Pharaoh and Daniel had favour with Nebuchadnezzar.
As business people and representatives of Christ in the workplace, we need the favour of God and ‘man’ to succeed. This favour would put us in a beneficial position where doors and opportunities would be opened to us, thus increasing our ministry, effectiveness and recognition of Christ in us. Favour with man will cause people to see you out to bless you. Favour is when the ability of God works for us.
Favour will cause us to experience unusual breakthrough in business. It qualifies us to hold offices which we would not normally occupy. Favour causes us to command attention and influence. Favour causes people to celebrate us. Favour is when there is an upturn for us, when there is a general downturn in the world.
Having said all of the above, favour with man needs to be secondary to seeking God’s favour. Favour with God is a priority; experiencing the favour of man flows out of experiencing God’s favour.
My prayer is that you will experience the favour of God and man. I trust that this post has been of some encouragement. Don’t forget to ask God for the favour of ‘man’. In the next post, we will examine how to get rid of those small compromising situations we all face, particularly in the business and workplace. It’s a key that requires some work.
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So, until I appear again in your inbox, stay blessed
Ola
Topics: Christian Business, Favour, Grace |