God’s Favor: How Do I Obtain It?

Everyone likes to be favored but how can a believer obtain God’s favor?  What does the Bible have to say about being favored by God?

We All Need a Favor

Everyone needs a favor once in a while.  There are friends, family, and co-workers that sometimes need a helping hand and we have done a favor for them and they may have done a favor for us to.  There is no shortage of people helping people when it comes to doing favors for one another but what about God?  How can a person obtain God’s favor?  Does God only favor the believers?  What does the Bible say about this?

Bible Verses on God’s Favor

Psalm 51:12 “Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.”

Who does God favor?  It is only those who are righteous.  Who can be righteous?  Second Corinthians 5:21 says “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Genesis 39:3-4 “When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did,  Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.”

When God is with the righteous, like Joseph, He often gives them success.  This doesn’t mean that everyone who is righteous will prosper in this life, but most certainly in the life to come and He will favor those on the Day of His return and judgment (Rev 20:11-15).

Job 10:12 “You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit.”

God is the Author of life and is also the preserver of life for Psalm 16:1 is a prayer that asks “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord I have no good apart from you.”

Psalm 30:5 “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

God’s anger is not a human kind of anger but a righteous anger but His favor will last, not only for a lifetime, but for all time because He has redeemed us from eternal death by the life of His only Son (John 3:16-17).

Isaiah 6:2b “But this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

God is actually looking to the humble and resisting the proud or prideful as James 4:6b says “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  The translation for the word “opposes” is actually to “be at war” in the Greek and so God can be said to be at war with the proud but He gives grace to those who humble themselves and have a contrite spirit (Prov 29:23; Isaiah 57:15).

Conclusion

God is searching for the humble but He is against the proud.  Second Chronicles 16:9a says “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” If a person really expects to find God’s favor, then listen to what Jesus says; “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this” (John 11:25-26)! You either believe Jesus or you don’t.  He is either telling the truth or He is not.  Since God cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and He is not like mankind that he would lie, then we know Jesus is not only telling the truth, He is the truth (John 14:6) and there is eternal life in no other name in all the universe (Acts 4:12; 16:30-31).

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want to Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book  Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.