There is such a thing as favor and it is like sunshine on our lives. Favor is when things go well and we are happy. When we experience favor it lifts us from the darkness of discouragement and depression. Favor energizes us and is like gas in our emotional tank and is like oil in the gears to help things go more smoothly. Without favor life can be rough and hard. How do we receive and experience favor in life? Where does favor come from? Favor comes from God and from man.
Psalm 5:12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord,
You surround him with favor as with a shield.
The Lord surrounds as with a shield those who receive favor. It is the Lord who blesses the righteous person with favor. Righteousness is walking and living according to God’s ways. The Lord gives His righteousness to those who receive Him and He wants them to display His righteousness to the world so that others might see and learn God’s ways.
Psalm 147:11 The Lord favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His lovingkindness.
The Lord favors those who fear Him. We are stubborn and don’t often want to do life God’s way. We want to go our own way and the result is much pain and grief. The Lord favors those who wait on His lovingkindness. The opposite of waiting on the Lord is taking matters into our own hands and doing it “our way”. We may get what we want but we will receive sorrow with it. Manipulation is also not waiting on the Lord. Pray and wait for His lovingkindness.
Psalm 44:3 For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them.
It is not by our strength that we gain victory and receive salvation but it is because He favors us and it is by His strength and His presence that sees us through to victory.
Proverbs 3:3,4 Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
The Lord wants us to learn to walk in His ways. His is kind in all His deeds and all His ways are truth. When we learn to live according to His ways then we will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.
Psalm 145:17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways
And kind in all His deeds.
The Lord is good and he wants us to do good. The Lord is truth and He wants us to walk in truth. The Lord is kind and loving and He wants us to be the same. We are secure in life because of His kindness, love and His truth. Truth never changes. Moods, emotions, feelings, likes and dislikes all change but the Lord never changes because He is truth. The more we walk in love and truth the more others will trust us. We will not be in a constant state of change and people will not be anxious when they are around you.
Ecclesiastes 12:13,14 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
When we fear God and keep His commandments then we will walk in His love and truth and we will receive favor from God and man. This is the standard by which the Lord will judge all that we do, whether it is good or evil. The standard of good and evil is not what we think of as good or evil but it is according to God’s standards of good and evil.
Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Ezra set his heart to study the word of God and to practice it. The Lord wants us to do the same.
II Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
The outcome will be the favor of God on your life.
Proverbs 11:27 He who diligently seeks good seeks favor,
But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.
It is when we diligently seek the Lord that we will find Him and in finding Him we will learn what it means to do good, for only God is good. When we find the Lord then we find life and we receive the favor of God.
Proverbs 8:35 For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the Lord.
Instructions To A Young Life 
Thank you all for the wonderful job you have been doing. Please, I have some worries and wish to table to you. What is the distinction between baptism in the the name of the father the name of the son and of the Holy Spirit as in mathew 28 and that of Acts 2.
On Wed, 14 Jul 2021, 14:03 Instructions To A Young Life, wrote:
> instructionstoayounglife.com posted: “There is such a thing as favor and > it is like sunshine on our lives. Favor is when things go well and we are > happy. When we experience favor it lifts us from the darkness of > discouragement and depression. Favor energizes us and is like gas in our > emotiona” >
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That’s a great question. In the Matthew passage Jesus gave what is called the Great Commission. The main command in those verses you are referring to is to “make disciples.” The baptizing and teaching which Jesus then says to do is the supportive actions a person does to make a disciple. In other words, if a person believes in Jesus then he/she then begins the life long process of being a disciple or follower of Jesus. A disciple then must be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is a reference to the Triune God. Baptism is an act of obedience to Jesus. To be baptized in God’s name means to be brought into a vital relationship with God through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The actual baptism event is a picture of what actually happens when a person believes. That person identifies with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (see Romans Chapter 6). The believing person in placed “in” Christ and Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the believing person’s life.
Now the passage in Acts 2 is the account where the Holy Spirit was given to believers just as Jesus had promised before He died and rose again. The Church was born that day at Pentecost. God was doing something that had never been done before – every believer was now going to receive the Holy Spirit as a “down payment” until they one day see Jesus face to face. It is really an exciting reality. If you have believed and confessed Jesus as Lord then you have been given the Holy Spirit to dwell with you. In Acts 2 it was an outward manifestation of the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise. It happened again when the Gospel was believed by non-Jews in Acts chapter 10. While the outward manifestations are not seen as readily today as they did at the beginning of the Church, the Holy Spirit should still been “seen” in the lives of people today by the change of actions, desires, attitudes and motives in the believing person. The Holy Spirit changes lives.
I hope all this makes sense. If you need clarification or have other questions please offer them and I will try to answer them.
May God bless you.
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