Favor and Grace

We were driving home after a trip out west. At dusk, we stopped in a Wyoming town and asked a gas station attendant about a good place to stay. She said her friend owned a nice motel just a couple blocks away. Beyond tired, we took her advice and stopped there for the night.

What she hadn’t told us was the little motel sat a stone’s throw from a railroad track and coal trains rumbled past about every fifteen minutes. The whole room juddered so badly that the dust fell from the curtains like snowflakes and the lone picture rattled against the wall. We hardly got any sleep.  

The next morning, we left and drove over a hill not a mile away. And there, there in the early morning sunlight, sat a mirage: A lovely hotel/convention center with an iridescent fountain in the front acreage. Swans floated gracefully on a lake. Flowers grew profusely.

For an instant, we thought maybe one of those trains had gone off the track, we had died and were rolling into heaven. But no, we were in still in Wyoming. We stopped to eat breakfast in this beautiful setting. It turned out that a room at the nice place cost about the same as at the Shake & Rattle Motel.

So often we settle for less, when something so much better is within reach.

Finding and living in the favor of God is one of those things we can miss entirely and never know it, just as we missed the nice place to stay because we didn’t believe we had a better choice.

But what exactly is favor? There are many definitions, some nouns and some verbs. One of my favorites is “gracious kindness.”

Recently, my sister-in-law, Dee Dee, served as a very human example of gracious kindness. She wants the very best for her granddaughter, so when the little girl celebrated her fifth birthday, Grandma bought dozens of delightful gifts for her. She stayed up late wrapping presents and could hardly wait for her granddaughter to open them.

Dee Dee enjoys giving good gifts, she has the means to give them and she loves her granddaughter enough to want the best for her. All her granddaughter has to do is open the gifts. She doesn’t have to earn them, they are hers because she’s part of the family.

The same can be said of God. He enjoys giving his children good gifts, he has the means to do it, and he wants the very best for us. Our part is to receive his gifts. Jesus himself said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”

What gifts does he have for us? Wow! The list is long, but it starts with the gift of eternal life, made possible through great sacrifice. How about peace of mind? Joy in the midst of trials? Healing for our hearts and bodies? Favor with God and humankind?

When my husband and I were newbie Christians a long time ago, we heard a speaker named Bob Buess, who talked enthusiastically about the favor of God. He said, “Your success and favor do not depend on your intelligence or ignorance, or your strength or weakness. Rather, they depend on your absolute conviction that your victory is in Jesus Christ and not in yourself.”

Too often, I forge ahead on my own and end up in an unpleasant place, rather than seeking out the help and blessing of my heavenly Father. But that doesn’t mean that he isn’t there, beckoning me to his knee, ready to favor me with love and kindness. Ready to favor you, too, because he is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

News About the Prairie Lighthouse Blog

The Prairie Lighthouse Blog is celebrating its first anniversary this month! Thank you, faithful readers. You inspire and encourage me.

Beginning this month, the Prairie Lighthouse Blog will feature a new series. It’s part of a study I’m developing with the working title of “Finding the Favor and Calling of God.” Lately, the words “call of God” or “God’s Calling” seem to leap out of every book or scripture I read. It’s like I’m being led into a deeper understanding of something that is so important to all of our lives. Something that is as vast as the prairie.

One could spend a lifetime discovering more about the soil, rocks, potholes, creeks, lakes, rivers, grasses, wild flowers, trees, birds and animals that make up the prairie.

It’s the same way with this inspiring topic. I have much to learn about favor, grace and God’s calling. I hope to share some of what I discover with you.

As always, your comments and questions will be appreciated.