Daily pearls from the shore🫧

UNMERITED

Recently, my daughter got an opportunity to present her research work at an international conference.

Some of you might be thinking: okay, and what’s so special about that?
She is an undergraduate intern who got to present her research at an international conference, usually attended only by postgraduates or professors. Not only that, her work and presentation were well received, applauded, and praised.

What was this: Great favor from God and from men.

From God for getting the opportunity when it is not conventional for undergraduates, and from men because it was well received and appreciated. Eventually, all favor is from God because it’s His favor that grants us favor in the hearts of humans too.

• There was a young boy who had eleven brothers who despised him so much that they sold him into slavery. However, he found favor with his master, and he was appointed to be in charge of everything in his master’s household. He was, then, falsely accused and was thrown into prison. Even there, he found favor and was appointed the chief of the prison operations. When the Pharaoh had a dream that no one could interpret, he was called to interpret it and he did. Not only that, he further provided the solution to the issues predicted in the dream. This led to him being appointed as an authority and being handed the work of the whole country.

This was Joseph, who ended up as second only to the Pharaoh in the vast kingdom of Egypt. Where did he start? Thrown into a well by his own brothers, sold as a slave, falsely accused and imprisoned, living in a dungeon despite having committed no crime. Still in the middle of all these messes, he found favor at every step- WHY? Because God was with Him.

• A group of slaves was taken to a kingdom, which included a young orphan girl and her relative. She was put into a harem, where she found favor, out of all the other girls, with the person in charge of the harem, who granted her the best beauty treatments and taught her the highest palace etiquette. She went on to find favor with the king and became the queen. Not just that, she could reverse a decree of genocide for her whole people because she had favor with the king.

This was Queen Esther of Persia, and she happened to be the queen who was actually an orphan slave girl from an enemy camp. She kept on finding favor at every stage of her life, even in the most dreadful of situations. How? God was with her.

What do we see here? Favor was working all along.

God promises “I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.”
(Leviticus 26: 9)

There wasn’t anything that these people did to earn this favor. They were actually in the most adverse situations where they could hardly think of receiving any favor. The favor was given freely because God was with Esther and her people, with Joseph, and with my daughter.
Now, how do we receive this favor from God?

Moses said to the Lord, “…You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” (Exodus 33:12-13)

Beautifully portrayed here in Moses’ conversation with God. God already knows you by your name, and his favor is already upon you. Moses was not a saint who had special favor. He was an abandoned child of the enslaved Hebrew community, left to die in the river, but was saved by an Egyptian princess and was raised in the palace of the enemy king as the Princess’s son. Not only did God give him favor as a newborn with the princess, but also with the king’s whole palace and kingdom. He was raised as the king’s own.

But what’s important here is how God’s favor continued to be with all of these people. The winning point is that God knew them and they knew God. Moses asked God to teach him how to know God for continued favor.
Two things stand out:
1. God’s covenant of love and hence favor is already there for his people.
2. Seeking God constantly to know Him more and more.

God loves us all unconditionally, and His promises stand true for us in the form of blessings and unmerited favor.
As we seek to know him more and more, we abide in His presence, and that is the place of continuous favor.

No matter what your situation looks like presently, know that God knows you by name and His favor is upon you. Know him closely, and you will know his love and favor that follow.

For He says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
“I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor; now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6: 2)

Let your life be directed from the place of God’s favor because of His Love.