What does it mean to find favor? It means to gain the attention of those who can help us, to gain their consideration in a way not usually accorded to just anyone. To gain favor means to have access to special consideration and action on our behalf.In this world, it is very difficult to get by let alone achieve our potential without finding favor with those who can help us. Even so,the favor granted by human beings towards each other is always limited to what is humanly possible at the time. What if you could find favor with the One who could grant you help with what is impossible for you to do in human terms? Join us for our next discussion on how you can find favor with the King - Jesus Christ - who has the power to bring strength, protection, honor, and blessing in your life!
Read: Online Bible Available
Scriptures:The book of Esther
Prayer: Let me find favor with you, O, Lord. My circumstances are beyond my control. I come to you to put them all before you while I walk by faith and not by sight. Your word says that you are the One who knows great and unsearchable things that I do not know. Show me the way I should go. Help me, please, that others may see and glorify your name. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king's question. -- Esther 5:8
Finding favor today in our world generally means to appeal to the compassion of someone we know who can help us. If done with a proper motive, this sort of behavior seems to be beneficial to everyone whether in the community, in the office or in the workplace. You may have even sought favor for yourself in an innocent manner to help solidify your job position or to have helped your family in difficult times or for a friend in need. You were one person trying to make a difference for yourself and those who will be affected by what you do for their good. But you may also have observed others who make seeking favor a way to destroy other colleague's careers and lives. (See The Impact of Narcissism on Leadership and Sustainability )
In the story of Esther, we can see each one of these kinds of people represented and as we do we can see the outcome for each. On the one hand we have Esther who seeks favor with King Xerxes in order to save the lives of her people, the jewish nation. On the other hand, we see how Haman, manipulates the King in order to gain favor and is willing to ruin reputations and kill others to do it.
Most importantly, we see the final outcome for each. Using evil as a short-cut to quiet the fear inside of missing out on what we think we deserve will eventually bring about our own sudden destruction. If we don't believe it's only a matter of time before evil actions catch up with us, we are fooling ourselves in the same way we may try to fool others to get what we think should be ours and not theirs.
When we examine the story of Esther we can learn an even greater lesson: the best way to seek favor and apply it to how we can approach God when we are in trouble and need the kind of help no one else can give us. We can also see how God deals with negative influences in our lives: not by destroying them but by showing us how we can defeat them in His strength. Sometimes that means being still, patiently waiting on God to act on your behalf, knowing that "...battle is God's and not ours." Sometimes that means listening to God's voice to our heart giving us direction on how to act in our circumstance to bring about victory for us. At any time, once you have learned what God needs you to learn to be complete with Him, God can accelerate your circumstances to victory because others are waiting to be blessed by your victory! Like Esther, one person, you, can make a difference!
Please read with me now an article by Bryce Klabunde entitled Can One Person Make A Difference?and see how God can take flawed, but faithful humans and impossible circumstances and turn them into miracles!
The Book of Esther reminds us that finding favor with the King, Christ Jesus, will have a powerful, life-changing effect. Through His favor and not our own efforts, we can achieve astounding things that will benefit not just ourselves but everyone around us ...even those we do not know. We can even save lives in ways we could never have imagined! Most of all, through submission to the King, Jesus Christ, we can save ourselves and our family who can learn to follow our example. Esther's story is one that brings this hope and challenge for all of us to know... that with God, all things are possible! (Mark 10:27)
Source: Crowned by the King,http://www.8x.com/onenight/images/making_crowned.jpg
A Media Choice! Extra: One Night With the King: The story of Esther ( 2006)
Posts
