God's Favor

"The angel went to her and said, "Greetings you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you...Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give him the name Jesus."Lk 1:28-30.

Favor: "excessive kindness or unfair partiality; preferential treatment."

So I have been thinking, how does one know if they have God's favor, what are signs of his favor on a person's life?

When I look deeper into Mary's story, here is the surest sign of God's favor on a life: He affirms her and then gives her something impossible to do. He gives her an honorable calling, but something that is way over her head.

He treats her with excessive kindness, calling her to be the mother of the savior of the world, but how "unfair" the challenges she will face in carrying it out. Imagine, the difficulty of explaining to others and Joseph that she was pregnant but still a virgin, the difficulty in traveling pregnant and having her baby in a barn, and the worst of all, watching her son die.

With favor comes great honor and great suffering.

When God calls me to do something challenging, unfair, or seemingly impossible, I am learning to choose to look at it as his favor on my life. He calls me to do something that is honorable but I'd rather not cause it's uncomfortable, its hard, it's not what I would choose. But he chooses it for me, knowing I will suffer, knowing I will be stretched, yet knowing I will carry out his will. And I recognize it's not about me, it's about Jesus.

Just like Mary, this calling wasn't about her, it was about Jesus.

And look at her attitude and response to God's call, "I am the Lord's servant.. May it be to me as you have said." Lk 1:38.

Recently he has called me to do something hard, something challenging and I hate to admit that my first response was so selfish, I cried and cried, saying I can't do this. But after a few weeks, I am now choosing to say, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said." This might be hard, it may not be what I want, but it is a sign of His favor on me.