Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. {Proverbs 3:3-4}
We all could use a little blessing from the Lord – okay, a lot. Who doesn’t want God to favor them? We all want God’s favor. To many of us, God’s favor means God’s love and blessings. I was reading this morning in Proverbs chapter 3 and I came across this verse and I can’t help but ponder over it: mercy and truth, mercy and truth, mercy and truth… Then I remembered this scripture from John,
“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” {John 1:17}
Isn’t that just wonderful? Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We don’t have to do much to earn God’s favor at all. All we have to do is go through Jesus Christ.
Have you ever wondered how hard it is to access God, much less God’s favor? Who is upright in their heart all the time? No one. The Bible tells us,
There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
{Romans 3:10-12}
Basically, that’s the truth for all of us. If we had it our way we’d all be doing our own thing and forget God altogether. The Bible tells us that the flesh is enmity with God. {Romans 8:7} The flesh fights with God. I mean think about it, you’re in church and the minister is preaching and all of a sudden your mind starts to wander away. You start to think about what you’re having for lunch. Then you start to wish church was over already and you have no clue afterwards what the preaching was all about. You go home, turn the TV on and eat. In our case these days, we turn our phones on and head out to a restaurant. It doesn’t matter what it is, it seems to me that as soon as it’s church time or God’s time or prayer time, we all start to feel like being drawn away to wander in our minds and in our hearts. We want to be with God, but we want to be doing our own thing too. That’s exactly what the scripture means when the flesh fights against God – there is no one that seeks after God or tries to understand Him, we all have gone away and are no good. If that is the case for a lot of us, how in the world are we ever going to find the favor of God? Talk about a hard task, talk about an impossible dream.
The truth is, unless God Himself has compassion upon all of us and draws us to Him, we are all lost. If we were to read the Bible in the Old Testament, it just seems like there is only one person that would be an exception to the rule or is cut above everyone before God. For example in the time of Noah, everyone was wicked except for him. In the time of Job, the only one that was truly upright and good was Job. God even brags about him to Satan because it was obvious not a lot of people are that good. In the time of Daniel there he was, the one who got persecuted for praying when he was told not to do it and so he got thrown into the lion’s den. Have you read the scripture in Ezekiel about Noah, Daniel and Job? God thought so highly of them that He singled them out to Prophet Ezekiel. He said to him,
Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD. {Ezekiel 14:13-14}
So, with only three men that made the cut with God, where are the rest of us to stand? Moses didn’t make the cut. Neither did King David or even Prophet Elijah. If they didn’t make it, how are the rest of us to find God?
Think about it: Mercy and Truth. Have you ever wondered what that really means? The Bible tells us,
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. {Matthew 5:7}
It is easy to be merciful when it doesn’t hurt us. For example when we see a friend who is down on his luck and he could use a few dollars we give it to him. But when that same friend bad-mouths us later to his other friends and belittled our help to him, talk about our mercy all right. Let him try asking for some help again and we’ll see about that. Talk about mercy? We don’t feel too merciful then. We feel wronged and indignant. We think about all kinds of things we could say to him so he can feel our mercy all right. Mercy is gone. We just want to get even. Our pride is hurt and our self-righteousness is up to the roof. We’ve done him good and this is how he repays us? There is absolutely no mercy for him.
And truth? What is truth? The Bible tells us,
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. {John 8:32}
How many of us are really truthful? How many of us have caught themselves lying? There are tons of us out there that are so guilty of not telling the truth – to God, to our spouses, to our children, to our friends, to our minister, to our neighbor, on and on and on. We have our own version of truth and we convince others to believe us. Whether in the way we live or in the way we talk, we hide truth from people. We lie to them. We don’t want them to know the truth because we’re afraid. We’re even afraid to own up to our own truth much less be truthful to other people. We’re going to show truth?
This is why the coming of Jesus Christ and revealing Himself to us in our day in age is so amazing! We need to truly take advantage of Him. We are fools if we don’t. If we take Him for granted and do not talk to Him, we are cheating ourselves big time! He has come to bring grace and truth into our lives. He has come to give us mercy and truth. You see, He has come to give us favor with God, because we can’t truly be merciful without His help. We cannot know what truth is except through Him. If we want favor from God, if we are looking for God to bless us and favor us, we have to go to Jesus Christ. Through Him we will find God’s mercy and truth and the way to live a favorable life before God. He will help us to be merciful and to know truth in our lives. All we need to do is talk to Him and spend time with Him all the time. Jesus Christ told us Himself,
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. {John 14:6}
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. {John 15:5}
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. {Matthew 11:28}
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I thank You with all of my heart for Your great love for me. I thank You for giving Your wonderful Son to me, Jesus Christ to be the atonement for my soul, so that I may find Your grace and Your mercy in my life today.
Lord, I am nothing without You. Truth and mercy so many times escape me. I want Your favor, I want Your mercy, because I want You to bless me and make it well for me in this life. But who is to help me obey Your word? Who is to make it possible for me to show mercy and truth in this life? No one else Savior, except for You. Please Jesus, I ask for Your grace and forgiveness for all of my sins and for all of my unrighteousness today. I ask forgiveness for the many times I did not show mercy and I did not show truth. Please Father, forgive me. I am lost without You, Lord. Have compassion upon me today and give me mercy and truth and your wonderful favor in my life. I pray today in Your wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
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Rp10/2018LookingToFindFavorFromGod?
