Floating Favor

I still have my issues with the word "favor" - it just sounds like being better than another when I believe we are all God's children with different paths. For example, with the recent tragedy of the air crash, if someone missed the flight and makes a comment like "I am favored", doesn't that sound somehow? It could have been anyone, it's not because we are more special or better, it just wasn't our path. That being said, I came across this devotional that I thought to share. It does have the topic of Favor but you will get the general gist of the message the writer was trying to share.

This was written by Lisa Crum

I don’t know the history of Ivory soap, but it has been around at least as long as I have. When I was a little kid, most of the time my grandmother had two kinds of bath soap in the house--Dove and Ivory. She liked the Dove because it had moisturizers in it (and tasted terrible when the washcloth passed over my mouth, by the way); my pick, however, was Ivory.

 

I can remember how well I loved the smell of Ivory, and still do, but what intrigued me about it was that it floats. That’s not a big deal to the average person sitting in the bathtub, but for a kid whose bathwater sometimes looked more like stagnant swamp water after playing outside all day, I liked not having to search for that slimy piece of sunken soap!

 

The favor of God is that mystery ingredient in the believer which causes us to rise above our circumstances; it causes us to operate in a realm which, in the natural, we shouldn’t be able to attain. How do we know it’s in there? The manifestation of the anointing. You may not be able to see the secret substance in that soap, but you can see the outward evidence. The anointing is proof that God’s favor is on your life. Perhaps you feel less significant than your peers, but if you are operating in God’s favor, the buoyancy of the anointing can cause you to outlast and outperform someone more experienced, more talented, more credentialed than you—someone who perhaps operates in the realm of self-sufficiency rather than God-dependency.

 

I’m not sure I can validate this, but I’m guessing that Granny paid more for the fancy moisturizing soap than she did for my cut-through-the crud Ivory. I know I’ve made a lot of her bars disappear awfully fast when I dropped them in that bathwater and they dissolved to nothing more than tiny scraps for her wringer washer. And over the years, being somewhat of an almost-but-not-quite person, I’ve felt inferior to the college graduate, the music major, the certified accountant; and I’ve wasted a lot of time weighing in on my unfinished side, rather than rejoicing in the unmerited favor and abilities God has given me in spite of what I didn’t get to do.

 

Strive to become the best you can be. If you’re young and still in school, soak up every bit of knowledge you can absorb. Don’t pass up those golden opportunities; in a day like today when the resources for learning are unlimited, you should never whine, “I’m bored!” There will never be another time when you’re as uninterrupted in your schedule as you are now. When you’re older, you may carry a heavy weight of adult responsibilities and won’t be able to devote hours each day to developing your talents and gifts. If you are, however, an adult who has to compensate for missed opportunities, God can meet you where you are as well. He can make up for what you didn’t get to achieve, through His favor and anointing. And if He wills for you to go back and earn those accolades you missed in your youth, He’ll open up the right doors and help you carve out time in your day to get them done.

 

So, how do you get to the favor, and the anointing? This comes through time spent alone with God, and for that there is no shortcut. Just like the kid who spends time in the kitchen with Mom, or under the hood of the car with Dad, we gain in understanding by watching Him...listening to Him…putting His instruction into practice.

 

Regardless of what you are able to achieve in the natural, never underestimate the power of God’s favor upon your life. Without it in the mix, all those fancy extra ingredients won’t carry you above the dirtiness of the world. Don’t sink…when you can FLOAT.

 

Scripture of the Day: “But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].” (Hebrews 11:6 AMP)