Ready:

"Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands – establish the work of our hands!” —Psalm 90:17

Set:

In the NFL there is a springtime invitation called the Combine. The Combine is for athletes to showcase their skills in the 40-yard dash, the vertical jump, bench press, broad jump, three cone shuttle and the 20-yard shuttle. The goal is to get a good look from coaches and gain their favor to get drafted. The dream for all of these athletes for most of their lives is to perform well and get drafted.  

Sometimes we carry the “perform for favor” mindset into our faith life. But the truth is God gives favor, blessing, grace, kindness and mercy, without our efforts of trying. He simply tells us to come to Him and ask. His favor comes to us, not to give us an advantage, nor to bring us to the front of the line, but to show His goodness, power and glory in us and through us. He made us, not for ourselves, but for Him.

Even Jesus demonstrated how to do this daily when He was here on the earth. As a young person, the Scripture says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). In His daily living, the way Jesus responded to situations and people was the right way. This is a strong example and a great encouragement to us that we too, in our normal daily living, can advance in wisdom, stature and favor with people and with God.

Don’t skip past this core truth. God wants to give us His favor. He’s not looking to see if we pass the test and make the team. He’s standing next to us before the competition, before the day at school or work, before anything we need to do, and He’s asking us to simply do it to the best of our ability.

Go:

1. How hard do you work to gain favor from your coaches? Have you experienced times of good favor and times of little or no favor? How did you respond or react?

2. Have you experienced the favor of God? What was that like?

Workout:

Overtime: