Finding Favor With God and Man

Proverbs 3:1-4 

The Rewards of Wisdom

My son, do not forget my teaching,

But let your heart keep my commandments;

 

For length of days and years of life

And peace they will add to you.

 

Do not let kindness and truth leave you;

Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart.

So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man.

www.biblegateway.com New American Standard Bible (NASB)

   One of our basic human needs is acceptance. Without it, we feel alienated or maybe even rejected. In the Bible, acceptance is often referred to as "favor." For example, when Joseph was sold into slavery, Genesis 39:4 says he "found favor" in the sight of his master Potiphar and was put in charge of the official's entire household. Joseph found acceptance and approval because of his exemplary behavior.

   Whose favor are you longing to receive? Do you desire God's approval? Today's text shows us how we can find favor with both God and man.

   FIRST, WE SHOULD VALUE THE LORD'S TEACHING. God blessed us by giving us HIs Word, but not everyone makes it a priority. We should recognize Scripture as our most valuable earthly possession because it is God's revelation of Himself and His instructions for us.

   SECOND, WE SHOULD MAKE OBEDIENCE TO GOD A MATTER OF THE HEART. Following His commands is about far more than just external rule keeping; it involves not only our actions but our attitudes and thoughts as well.

   THIRD, WE ARE TO LET KINDNESS AND TRUTH CHARACTERIZE OUR LIFE. When we are wholeheartedly living in obedience to God's commands, the effect will spill over into our relationships, as kindness and truth become the guardians of our words and actions.

   Although the Christian faith may evoke a negative response from some, believers shouldn't be discouraged. A life that reflects Christ pleases God. And in bringing light to a dark world, an obedient life will also bring the favor of many in its circle of influence.

Stanley, Charles F. "Finding Favor With God and Man." In Touch: Daily Readings for Devoted Living. February 2018. Atlanta, In Touch Ministries. page 35.

The Heart of Our Faith

Galatians 2:15-16

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.          NIV Bible Gateway.com
 Paul believed nothing merited his boasting more than the cross (Gal. 6:14). He had good reason to think so: God's entire plan of salvation hangs upon two beams of rough-hewn wood. It is through Jesus' sacrificial death that we are reconciled to the Father. And we are justified by Christ's blood - freed from the guilt and penalty of sin.
   Galatians 2:16 says, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." That is, clean living cannot earn God's acceptance. Even so, many people choose to put confidence in some sort of cosmic "scale" - they believe their good deeds will outweigh their bad deeds, and as a result, the gate of heaven will be open to them.
   However, if this scale philosophy were true, Jesus' death would be senseless. A Father who accepted multiple paths to salvation but still sacrificed His Son couln't be called good or loving. Yet so many overlook the obvious logic of such reasoning and cling to their vision of a God who ignores personal sin.
   The problem is pride. Since it is natural to desire acceptance, people want to believe something within them is worth loving. But the cross requires kneeling before God empty-handed. When we humbly admit we're powerless to settle our own sin debt, we must accept the payment Jesus made for us.
    We have nothing to offer God, but the fact is, He expects nothing. Instead, the Father created a salvation plan that cleansed the stain of our sin and reconciled us to Him. The cross is a symbol of His love - a love that deserves our boasting.
Stanley, Charles F. "The Heart of Our Faith." In Touch: Daily Readings For Devoted Living September 2016. Atlanta: In Touch Ministries. page 12. 

A. W. Tozer 1897 - 1963

Two of his many books, The Best of... offers excerpts of 12

    In the introduction on page 7 of The Best of A.W. Tozer, a statement from Dr. Tozer summarizes what he believed and what he tried to do during his ministry. "I guess my philosophy is this: Everything is wrong until God sets it right." In his writing Tozer calls us "to see that real world of the spiritual... He implores us to worship God that we might become more like Him." page 9 of the introduction.

 Keys to the Deeper Life by A.W. Tozer

If Paul Were Preaching Today

With the words “That I may know him” Paul answered the whining claims of the flesh and raced on toward perfection. All gain he counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord, and if to know Him better meant suffering or even death it was all one to Paul. To him conformity to Christ was cheap at any price. He panted after God as the heart pants after the waterbrook, and calm reason had little to do with the way he felt.

Indeed a score of cautions and ignoble excuses might have been advanced to slow him down, and we have heard them all. “Watch out for your health,” a prudent friend warns. “There is danger that you become mentally unbalanced,” says another. “You’ll get a reputation for being an extremist,” cries a third, and a sober Bible teacher with more theology than thirst hurries to assure him that there is nothing more to seek. “You are accepted in the beloved,” he says, “and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. What more do you want? You have only to believe and to wait for the day of His triumph.”

So Paul would be exhorted if he lived among us today, for so in substance have I heard the holy aspirations of the saints damped down and smothered as they leaped up to meet God in an increasing degree of intimacy. But knowing Paul as we do, it is safe to assume that he would ignore this low counsel of expediency and press onward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And we do well to follow him.

When the apostle cries “That I may know him,” he uses the word know not in its intellectual but in its experiential sense. We must look for the meaning-not to the mind but to the heart. Theological knowledge is knowledge about God. While this is indispensable it is not sufficient. It bears the same relation to man’s spiritual need as a well does to the need of his physical body. It is not the rock-lined pit for which the dusty traveler longs, but the sweet, cool water that flows up from it. It is not intellectual knowledge about God that quenches man’s ancient heart-thirst, but the very Person and Presence of God Himself. These come to us through Christian doctrine, but they are more than doctrine. Christian truth is designed to lead us to God, not to serve as a substitute for God.

… What the deeper life advocates are telling us is that we should press on to enjoy in personal inward experience the exalted privileges that are ours in Christ Jesus; that we should insist upon tasting the sweetness of internal worship in spirit as well as in truth; that to reach this ideal we should if necessary push beyond our contented brethren and bring upon ourselves whatever opposition may follow as a result.

… Also in this writing Tozer stated, “I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival, but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than with consequences, with the disease rather than with symptoms… Most evangelicals no longer initiate; they imitate, and the world is their model… We are busy these days proving to the world that they can have all the benefits of the Gospel without any of the inconvenience to their customary way of life. It’s ‘all this, and heaven too.’ … To beg for a flood of blessing to come upon a backslidden and disobedient Church is to waste time and effort… God is not interested in increased church attendance unless those who attend amend their ways and begin to live holy lives.”

…We must return to New Testament Christianity, not in creed only but in complete manner of life as well. Separation, obedience, humility, simplicity, gravity, self-control, modesty, cross-bearing; these all must again be made a living part of the total Christian concept and be carried out in everyday conduct. We must cleanse the temple of the hucksters and the money changers and come fully under the authority of our risen Lord once more. And this applies to this writer and to this magazine as well as to everyone that names the name of Jesus. Then we can pray with confidence and expect true revival to follow.

This was gleaned from an article from the Series in Christian Life published by Zondervan Publishing

Read more of Tozer's books for your own growth!!!

How We Get Into Bondage and Why We Don't Get Out

Freedom in Christ Ministry books by Neil Anderson and Mike & Julia Quarles

 How We Get Into Bondage and Why We Don't Get Out

1.  Our greatest needs are to be accepted (loved) and have worth (value).  This is what drives us to do what we do.  It is the motivation behind all behavior.  God made us that way and His design is that He will meet all our needs when we look to Him.

2.  As we grow up, have problems and go through life we get messages about who we are.   At first they are only feelings about ourselves, but they quickly turn into what we believe about ourselves.  It is the way we see ourselves and who we believe we are.

3.  As a result we all develop a false identity about who we are.  This false identity comes from the world (family, environment, hurts, trauma), our flesh (ways we try to live life in our own resources) and the devil, who constantly accuses us and tells us lies about ourself, God and what we need in life.  It shapes all of our life and everything we do.

4.  We begin to try to meet our needs for acceptance and worth the best way that we can -- in our own resources (flesh).  As a result we develop ways of living as we attempt to cope, escape, defend ourselves, succeed (or avoid failure). These are flesh patterns or ways that we learn to live life independent of God.  We develop these patterns based on how we perceive ourselves, what we believe about God and how we think life works.

5.  A flesh pattern is simply a way that we have learned to meet our needs independent of God.  All of us have them because none of us were born Christians and none of us look to God to meet all our needs all the time.  We wrongly think it is just the way we are. One of Satan's biggest lies is that what we do determines who we are.

6.  Some of these ways (flesh patterns) are unacceptable such as irresponsibility.   Some of them are very bad such as drug and alcohol addiction.  But some of them are acceptable such as perfectionism and driven to succeed. We need to know that anything that we do to meet our needs apart from God is flesh.  It could be good, right, noble and even spiritual, but if we are trying to meet our needs instead of looking God, it is flesh.

7.  Some of these ways develop into strongholds such as drug addiction which causes a lot of problems in our lives.  As we seek help, more than likely the counsel is to focus on the wrong behavior and try to change it.  This is the reason we don't get free.   The root problem is not the behavior.   The root problem is the misbelief behind the behavior.  As long as a person believes lies about himself he will never get free, no matter what he does.

8.  Alcoholism, addiction, eating disorders, etc., are not the problem.  The problem is the lies we believe about who we are that causes us to try to meet our needs in our own resources. The reason we don't easily give them up is that the way we meet our needs for acceptance and worth is the way we find life and identity.  It is deeply ingrained in us.

9.  When a person learns that they are not a failure, an addict, unloved, insecure, inferior and guilty -- BUT are forgiven, accepted, competent, complete, righteous and secure in Christ, they will begin to change and experience freedom. A person who understands who they are in Christ will not engage in self-destructive, addictive behavior as a life style.

10.  The reason few are finding freedom is that they are trying to change their behavior. They may be trying to change it through spiritual disciplines, but that is nothing but Christian behavior modification (legalism). A person will always act in accordance with how they perceive themselves. 

www.freedomfromaddiction.org/Truths

 

Experiencing God's Love

Ephesians 3:17-19

¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. NIV Bible Gateway.com

   ... Paul prays that the Ephesians will grasp the depth of Christ's love. Though divine care is beyond human comprehension, the apostle says God will give spiritual understanding so we can experience Him more fully. But there are four things that keep us from getting a handle on His love and resting in it.
    1.  WE THINK GOD'S ACCEPTANCE IS IMPERFECT AND CONDITIONAL LIKE OURS. Yet the Bible tells us that His compassion comes from His character and is not dependent upon our morality, choices, or thoughts. (See Rom. 5:8.)
   2. WHEN WE RECOGNIZE OUR SIN, WE OFTEN EXPERIENCE GUILT. Sometimes this leads to feeling unworthy of the Father's ultimate love. Instead, let a guilty conscience lead you back to God so that you can repent. Realize that His love and forgiveness are greater than any sin. He promises that there is no condemnation for His followers ( Rom. 8:1).
   3. THERE ARE SOME TEACHERS WHO ENCOURAGE LEGALISM. This traps a person into feeling he or she must earn God's favor. It also contradicts the divine truth that our Father loves His children without condition.
   4. SOME OF US HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME RECONCILING GOD'S LOVE WITH HIS DISCIPLINE. These can exist together, however. His correction flows from compassion, just as loving parents must redirect their children.
   Recognizing God's love will bring peace and joy to your life. At the same time, it doesn't give license to sin. Like any caring father, the Lord will use discipline to bring you back to Him. Instead, why not let His love motivate you to walk in a holy and obedient manner before Him?
Stanley, Charles F. "Experiencing God's Love." In Touch: Daily Readings For Devoted Living August 2016. Atlanta: In Touch Ministries. page 35.