Favor in God's sight

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved son; in thee I am well pleased. - Luke 3: 22

Favor In God’s Sight

My friends, it goes without saying that finding favor in the sight of God ought to be the ultimate goal of every Christian. The bible has already said of God “Thou art worthy O Lord to receive all glory honor and power: For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure, they are and were created”. Revelations 4:11

No, now this deserves an expansion. Finding favor in the sight of God is the ultimate purpose of all creation. From the passage above extracted from the book of Revelation we discern that all things were created for God’s pleasure. What does this mean? It means that the trees bend to the wind to the glory of God. The ants of the earth operate as a community to the pleasure of God. The birds sing and the waves roar, the sheep graze and the leopard stalks its prey. The heart pumps the blood, gravity keeps you on the ground, the earth spins around, all declaring the awesome glory of God.

And Man…man especially who was put in charge of all the earth’s creation. (See Genesis 1:26.)

And so the finding of favor in the sight of the lord is indeed a wonderful thing. It means that God is pleased with you. It signifies the fulfilling of your purpose, it means that though to you your life may not seem perfect, you are living it as God intended, and so his favor comes to rest upon you. At this moment in time there is a song that comes to my mind. It is a song in my native language of a man singing to the girl he is going to marry and his reasons are “Ihe I na’eme ka’m na acho” this literarily means, “The things you do are the things I want”. This is how a wife finds favor in the eyes of her husband, and the husband in the eyes of his wife, by the doing of the things that are pleasing to each other.

In the bible Paul says that it is his desire to present us as a bride, undefiled before God. And so I think that every Christian should long to hear God say: Ihe I na’eme ka’m na acho.


This is how a wife finds favor in the eyes of her husband, and the husband in the eyes of his wife, by the doing of the things that are pleasing to each other.

So this concept of God’s favor upon us is one that has been on my mind lately. I have thought about it and turned it around in my mind. More and more I see that a lot of us do not experience this favor of God upon us because we do not seek it. The bible says that we do not have because we do not ask.

And what does it really mean to have God’s favor? What are the signs? How do you know that the favor of God is shinning all over you? What do you do to find favor in the eyes of God? These are all questions worth pondering, and we will but first I want to give an example from the bible of 4 people who had God’s favor resting upon them, and a pattern that God revealed to me in all these people. They are (In the order that they appear in the bible: Joseph, David, Esther, Daniel.)

Joseph: It is evident that Joseph had the favor of God upon him. Remarkable things happened to him. Although he saw frightening horrors at the hands of his brothers and at those of strangers, God always saw him through. First he found favor in the eyes of his Father Jacob who loved him above all his brothers. He was gifted with the gift of dreams. His brothers were jealous of him and sold him into slavery. In Egypt he worked in Potifahs house. Potifah’s wife certainly found him favorable, and when he resisted her attempts to seduce him he was thrown in jail. But God was with him. He used the gift God blessed him with to interpret Pharaohs dream, thereby finding favor in the sight of Pharaoh. Thus he was exalted in the land of Egypt to the fulfilling of his purpose.

David: And what can we say about David? Is there any doubt that David had the favor of the lord on his side? When God rejected Saul, God sent his prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse where he would find among Jesse’s sons he whom God has chosen to be King of Israel. The bible tells us that Samuel looked at one of the sons Eliab and said “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him”. But the lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, or on the height of stature; because I have refused him: For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:6-7.

When Jesse had paraded seven of his sons before Samuel, Samuel told Jesse “The lord hath not chosen these. Are here all thy Children?” Only then did Jesse remember David, the youngest who was keeping the sheep. They sent for David and when he appeared before them, God said “Arise, anoint him, for this is he”. The bible tells us that then and there Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of God came upon David from that Day forward. 1 Samuel 16:13

David also found favor in the eyes of Saul. The bible says that an evil spirit from God was upon Saul, but when David took a harp and played it Saul was refreshed and the Evil Spirit departed from him. 1 Samuel 16:23

When David faced the Philistine Goliath, God was with him. When Saul turned against him God was with him; upon Saul’s death David took the place that God had kept for him, as the next King of Israel. The bible calls David “A man after God’s heart”.

Esther: And shall we forget Esther? She lived to fulfill her purpose in the favor of the lord. “And the King Loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.” Esther 2:17

When the Kings evil adviser Haman plotted against Mordecai and the people of Israel, and sent out a letter that all Jews should be killed, Mordecai sent a message to Esther, and here was her response: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or Day: also me and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the King which is not according to law: and if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:17

Wow. What a display of faith. What a heart for her people and her God. She knew that going to see the King at a time in which it was forbidden could mean her life, but she did it in faith. She did it for her people. God delivered the evil adviser Haman into her hands and Esther was celebrated in life.

Daniel: The favor of God upon Daniel was powerful enough to shut the mouths of hungry Lions when he was thrown into the Lions den by the plots of evil men. But Prior to that, Daniel found favor in the eyes of the keeper of the Kings courts when he refused to eat the meat of the palace, but only vegetable and water. Still he looked fresher and healthier than all the other young men. Daniel found favor in the eyes of Kings by interpreting their dreams, and such was the favor that he found in the eyes of the lord that God gave him revelation after revelation, including this one: I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

Brothers and sisters, such was God’s favor upon Daniel that he saw the son of man. He saw Jesus, long before Jesus was born.

But there are others all across the bible that had the favor of God upon them. There is Mary the mother of Jesus, of whom the Angel of the Lord said “Blessed art thou among women!” there is Mary and Martha, what about Moses and Joshua? And Abraham our father? Perhaps we shouldn’t omit Job, whose favor in God’s sight was such that God bragged about his goodness to Satan. Who saw much suffering at the testing of his faith, but held on to the end as he was exalted above his prior status. There are so many examples if you care to look, of men and women in the bible in whose lives the favor of God was all the difference.

What This Means For You

This is the pattern that God revealed to me in the 4 individuals that we examined: The Favor of God rests upon a person, neither by works nor by deeds. These people had God’s favor before they ever did anything great (All 4 of them as young people). But God saw in them a heart for him. This is all about the heart- I will get to this.

So these people have God’s favor, and in all cases we see that this translates into favor in the eyes of men (Kings and Rulers). They are tested, as they face very difficult times (Joseph was sold into slavery and thrown in jail, David was sent to fight a Giant with a sling and was hunted by Saul, Esther’s life was threatened by Haman, Daniel was thrown into a Lions Den), but God’s favor was always greater than the circumstance; and they came out even better than they were prior to their trials. This is the favor of God upon his servants.

I believe that the favor of the lord rests in this day and age upon certain individuals. It is evident in their lives. Good things seem to happen to them, and when they find themselves in difficult circumstances it never breaks their faith. They always come out on top seemingly against the odds.


"Though the storms may blow i am holding on. To the rock i cling" Chris Tomlin. (People who have favor in God's sight always seem to rise above their circumstance, irrespective of the odds."

My brothers and sisters I am about to say something. I wish there was a way that I could somehow imprint this upon your heart. I am moved because I want so much to make you see…I can only write these words; it is Jehovah who reveals.

What I want to say is this: It all lies in the heart.

That’s it. God’s favor is not achieved or “won”. We cannot do x,y,z in order to achieve the favor of God. All of these people had the favor of God before they ever did anything. In fact it is what enabled them to do the things that they did. In all of these instances you can see that all of them had a heart for God. Their hearts were pure, they wanted nothing more than to please God. They were devoid of ambition, guile, knowledge even…David didn’t care that he was tending sheep while his brothers were being examined for possible anointing. Esther didn’t grow up wanting to be Queen. Daniel never applied to be in the Kings court. Joseph only repeated the wonderful things that God had revealed to him about his future; unaware of how it infuriated his brothers.

Is God’s favor something that you desire for your life? Keep your heart open to him. Yearn for him. Love him. It’s all in the heart. God said it remember? “For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart”. 1 Samuel 16:7

May you all find favor in the eyes of this good God. He is El Roy (The God that truly sees). To him be the glory and honor, now and forevermore. Amen.