Stepping Into God's Love And Favor!

Last night I was talking about the Lord with my good friend Roger and our conversation flowed back to an earlier theme the Lord introduced to me concerning His favor.  The more I think on this theme, the more I realize that I know next to nothing about God's favor, for it is so much more than we think.  This morning I was reading from Mark's Gospel and came across the following two verses, which while not mentioning favor, are directly related to our experience of God's favor.  Here are the verses - Mark 9:23-24 NIV:

[23] “ 'If you can'?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” [24] Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

The context was the a boy with a demon that the disciples could not cast out, and the boy's father had asked Jesus to help, if indeed He could help.  This was Jesus' response, and like many of His responses, they are contextual, yet much larger in meaning.  Jesus had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, where His Father had spoken of His Love and pleasure in Him (Mark 9:7, Matt 17:5).  The Greek words used in Matthew's version can be translated favorite one, to whom I am favorably inclined, if we used some of the secondary meanings, so you get the picture.  God the Father is saying He Loves His Son, and acts that way towards Him.

Jesus comes down and addresses the disciples, for the comment was really addressed to them and the boy's father, "Everything is possible for one who believes."  The question we should ask ourselves is "believes in what"?  The answer is clear from the earlier context, the one who believes in God's love for them, and who understands God's favor (if I might add that for the two are inseparable).  Jesus understood the fullness of what His Father's love and favor meant, and was operating out of the reality of that relationship.

I love the father's response, "I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!"  I believe this gets to the heart of the matter for all of us.  We have a hard time believing that God could actually love us the way He says He does.  We believe it to some extent, but there are whole levels we don't dare step into, because we don't dare believe they are possible.  Jesus says that "EVERYTHING is possible to the one who believes"!  So we are either believing that God doesn't love us as much as He says He does, or we believe we aren't worthy of His Love, which disqualifies us from the fullness of His love.  Simply put, that is unbelief!   We need to be praying exactly like the father here - help me overcome my unbelief!

God wants us to understand and step into the fullness of His love and favor, and to do that we will need His help!  We must recognize our self-limiting thoughts and beliefs and confess them and pray for the ability to repent (change the way we think and then change the way we act in regards to the new thoughts)!  God wants us to step into the fullness of our inheritance in Christ!  It is our beliefs, or lack there of that is the limiting factor, for God is surely able.

The Lord put it to me this way Friday evening -  He is calling us to a higher level (a HIGHway).  The way to get to the HIGHway is through an on-ramp.  This on-ramp is essentially us stepping into and believing His words (of love and favor).  We can choose to be conservative (fear and unbelief limited) in our approach, barely stepping on the accelerator, and not really thinking we can actually step into the fullness of His purposes.  We tend to yield our position and opportunities to our fear and unbelief.  God is calling to us, and encouraging us (just like I used to when my children were learning to drive) STEP ON IT, ACCELERATE NOW!  He has given us gifts and callings in our lives and we have choice to step into them or not.  We can struggle in unbelief or fear and slowly get there, yielding continually to our doubt so that we miss many of the opportunities to step into the higher level, or we can press into belief and trust in His love and favor.  He wants nothing more than to see us living up to the potential He sees in us!  He is the one who has put all that potential in us, and is just waiting for the day we realize its there to be used and experienced!  He has GREAT plans and purposes for every one of us.  He really does Love us that much!  He really does think we are worthy of His love, because Jesus made us worthy!  He really means everything is possible to Him who believes this, embraces this and steps into it!

So I am greatly encouraged today to step into His purposes for me.  Lord help me to overcome my own unbelief and press into Your words to me, Your call to me, Your gifts and purposes!  Help me to step on the accelerator and into Your Favor!