Mensa Otabil - You Have Found Favour With God
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We’re still looking at the Christmas story, Luke chapter 1, verses 30 to 31. 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.» After the angel of the Lord had visited Zacharias, God paid a visit to another person, a young lady called Mary. Mary is a relative of Zacharias’s wife, Elizabeth, so it seems as if God has his eye on this family of Elizabeth and Mary. Mary is engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, and before the marriage could be completed, she had this visit. This visit simply told her that she would carry the Son of God in her womb. The message begins with the same caution that Zacharias was given: «Don’t be afraid.» Don’t be afraid because God wants us to walk by faith and not by fear. When we receive the Word of God, we receive it in faith and not in fear. You check your fear at the door and walk into the throne room of God with faith.
Mary is told that she has found favor with God; she’s found God’s favor. We’re not told why Mary found favor with God. Was it because she was a very pious girl? Was it because she was a good girl? Did she have good character? We don’t know, but favor is favor. Favor doesn’t always play according to a person’s deservedness. So we cannot say that because Mary deserved this, that’s why God did it for her; then it wouldn’t be favor. God’s favor is God’s favor; we can’t buy it, we cannot negotiate for it, nor can we steal it. When God favors somebody, you may not like it, but there is nothing you can do about it. So God says to Mary, «You have found favor with God.» Of all the women in history, from Eve to Sarah to Esther, and all the marvelous women of the Bible up until this time, this is the one God chose. Something about God’s purposes fit this woman, and God chose her without telling us why he did.
When God chose her, he says that she will conceive in her womb and bring forth a son, and she will call his name Jesus. So, Mary, God has found favor with you. But it’s not just favor for favor’s sake; the favor is going to enable you to do something. You’re going to have the capacity to carry something that no human being has ever carried, and that is the favor of God. When it is shown to us, when God’s favor comes to us, it enables us to do things, carry things, conceive things, and believe things that we would never be able to do in our natural strength. I pray that the favor of God will locate you somehow, so that when the favor of God comes to you, you would not be afraid and would receive all that God is giving to you.
In the story, we see the Most High God, the God of the universe. He wants to bring his Son into the world; he wants to enter our world, and he reaches out to a very lowly woman and chooses her to do what he wants to do. There’s something about God that is always baffling—that he reaches out in obscurity to bring people into the light and favors them. When he favors them, there is nothing you and I can do about it. Mary, you are favored by God, and may God favor each one of us this day in Jesus' name. Let’s share a word of prayer together. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, let me find favor in your sight. I receive your help and your ability to do what you want me to do. In Jesus' name I pray, amen and amen.» We’ll continue our story tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.