Finding Favor

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you;blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 

And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

-Luke 1:26-32 NKJV

This Mary… she enters the scene with no introduction.  The Bible doesn’t give us her story prior to this announcement.  Who was this woman who would, through nativity, bring divinity to humanity?  Who was this woman who would give the earth Heaven’s main character?    

A few years ago, for the first time, I considered myself in Mary’s narrative.  My backstory, however, at the time, was cloaked in a different kind of mystery.  Was God really Who the Bible said He was?  Where was He in my life?  Why weren’t my prayers being answered or my dreams being realized in the way that I had imagined?  When were things going to change?  What. was. going. on?  And then, in that moment, as I started to consider the Advent, God began to speak to my present and to show me my future through HIS-story.

“Do not be afraid, Rewa; for you have found favor with God.”  Rewa, you have found approval, support and love with God.  He bestows acts of kindness to me beyond what is usual.  I’m in His good graces.  Jeremiah 29:11.  Don’t be fearful.  God has a plan and God has a promise.  He’s intentional with His purpose.  He has a blessing with my name on it. 

“And behold, you (Rewa) will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son…”  See it.  The conception of His vision for me.  I will carry His plan for my work in the world.  I will carry life.  It will take root.  I will nurture it and it will grow.  I will swell with all that I have been entrusted with.  I’m expecting.  It won’t abort.  I won’t miscarry.  I will give birth.  The promise will come forth.  The Son.  This treasure in earthen vessels.

“…and shall call His name Jesus.”  The revelation of His identity.  You, Rewa, will have a divine conviction about the vocation, the vision, that God has entrusted you with.  Call Him what God told you to call Him.  God knows the assignment.  He knows the purpose of the gift.  He already sees the harvest from the Seed.

Like Mary, though?  Who was I that God could, or would, use me to bring Jesus into the world?  I mean, the Bible doesn’t give us Mary’s relational or religious resume’.  Who begat her?  Did she take bread to the hungry in Nazareth?  What had she done to find favor?  What had she done to find access to the grace and kindness of God, to the extraordinary gift and blessing of the Father? 

What would I have to do?

I didn’t feel favored.  I didn’t even feel favor-able.    

At the time, I thought that favor was beyond me, that it was something that I’d lost.  Looking back, I see that not only was God trying to reassure me of His very presence, but He was also outlining a much greater lesson. 

Perspective.  God was trying to give me some.      

Let me explain…

To Eve.  Genesis 3:16 KJV “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children…”  The punishment.

To Mary.  Luke 1:31 NKJV “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son…”  The pardon.    

You see, sorrow in conception and childbirth couldn’t just be about having physical children.  If that were the case, those of us childless by choice or chance would be exempt from the consequence of sin.  And that’s impossible.  If you’re like me, maybe some of your greatest sorrow has come from your perceived inability to bring forth God’s plans for your life.  Over and over again, we may ask ourselves (and God) so many questions.  Looking for answers, we think that perhaps there’s something about our pasts or our personalities that disqualify us from God’s favor.  Punishment.      

Maybe you’re like me.  Or should I say, maybe you’re like Eve…  Perhaps your mind too wonders, “Did God really say…?”  If so, insert your name in Mary’s narrative too.  Mary was just like you and me, in need of a Savior.  There was an Eve in Mary too.  She wasn’t exempt from the consequence of sin either.  She was faithful, not faultless.  And God still chose her to birth the Redeemer, to birth the promise that would bring resolution to His story.  “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.  (Genesis 3:15 KJV)”  Pardon. 

I get it now.  I see it.  And I hope that you do too.  God has written us, too, into His story.  And there’s nothing that we have to do to earn our places.  Finding favor is allowing God to use us, with our unique gifts and abilities, to bring forth Jesus into the world.  Jesus: Redeemer, Emmanuel, Deliverer. 

PRINCIPLE: “By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.”- Psalm 41:11