“In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the LORD and of His goodness.”  (Hosea 3:5 NLT)

Well, I don’t know about you 🙂 but one thing I would like to be in awe of is to see and witness His goodness, the knowledge of His glory filling the earth as the water covers the sea.  I desire to see JESUS and the benefits of His finished work at the cross in awestruck wonder, and favor is one of them.

First and foremost, the favor of God is unmerited, unearned and undeserved.  It falls upon those whose eyes are open to see the Kingdom of God because they believe in Jesus Christ and His finished work that completely turned around things for their favor … from ashes to beauty, from sickness to health, from lack to prosperity, from emptiness to completeness, from mourning into dancing, from sadness into gladness, from sorrow into joy, from curses to blessings, and once blessed it CANNOT be reversed.  It is forever.

“For His anger is but for a moment, and HIS FAVOR IS FOR A LIFETIME. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  Psalm 30:5 (ESV)

Favor can be seen.  Blessings are noticeable.  The goodness of God can be tasted.  The work of His hands is attractive.  His love always finds a language to express itself.  Look at the life of Joseph.   His master SAW that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. (Genesis 39:3).

I always believe for things that I am not capable of attaining by myself.  And because I love to travel for a cause, I pray, believe, declare and yes, I SEE the hand of the Lord move making my desires possible.  It happened a lot of times and in various ways.  None of them were identical but all of them were supernatural.  All that I needed was for me to trust Him with all of my heart leaning not on my own understanding, all by His grace and mercy, and boooom!!! what I believed I saw!

The funny thing is that, initially, every time I believe for something or somewhere new, it always puts me back to have this question in my mind … will the Lord do it again? And how will He do it?  Though I know in my heart that His promises are yes and amen, my mind still has it’s way of drifting away like a ship that needs a mooring line securing itself to a permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured to forestall its free movement.

One very powerful revelation that I learned and still learning is that my thoughts should be anchored into this truth that God is not a man that He should lie nor a son of man that He should change His mind.  Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19 ESV)  I am in the process of being fully persuaded that His character nor His words change but what tosses me to and fro is the waiting time until His promise manifests.  The good news is that as we set our eyes to wait UPON THE LORD, enjoying His presence every step of the way, our perspective changes that postures us to be joyful and peaceful as each day passes by.  To focus on waiting upon the manifestation of what we are believing for deprives us of the favor that He laid out for us every moment.   Why not “stop and take time to smell the roses”, finding God’s favor that are noticeable along the way that causes us to enjoy life every step of the way?

I booked a domestic plane ticket to travel to an island to spend time with my family.  The very next day, I got a message from my relatives inviting me to a celebration that is well worth attending a week before my scheduled trip but my budget was already exhausted for my previous booking.  I sat still in silence getting into God’s frequency posturing myself to hear His heartbeat and His next step.  My heart was at peace and full of joy. Shortly after that, I got a text message that one of them was going to purchase a ticket for me to go.  I didn’t ask them for it, but God’s favor met my desire to go.

In addition to the plane ticket, I thought of the expenses that will be incurred during this trip.  But God’s faithfulness had gone ahead of me.  One of them also texted me that I will be given a certain amount for me to spend.  Hmmmm … another favor well accounted for.

One day before our flight in which six of us were on the same flight, six flights from the same airline where we got our bookings from got cancelled.  Upon looking at the list, lo and behold, our flight number was not included in the list.  On the contrary, we took off on the dot.  That surely was God’s favor falling upon us.

This time to travel to a local beach resort isn’t really the wisest idea due to its unpredictable weather.  It’s rainy season.  But then again, I just believed that He Who began a good work in us is faithful to finish it.  His love and faithfulness will always see us through.  Thankfully, we went on a three-hour drive on a bright sunny day and enjoyed the journey all along.  Another favor?  Yes, indeed!

When we checked-in at the private beach resort, all other guests checked out and that left the resort all to ourselves.  Even the attendants made comments on how blessed we were.  This is what we call favor after favor, thank God.

One of us hired a boat that can accommodate eighteen of us to go off to another island to snorkel where beautiful gigantic corals and colorful fishes are.  Then we proceeded to another place where sea turtles were frequently spotted.  Our last stop was to have fun in a sardine run where millions of sardines cuddling up and moving around.  For all of us to have a free treat to this wonderful adventure, it was absolutely counted as another favor from up above.

Mind you that when we went to the location where the sea turtles were supposed to be, we didn’t find even one.  I just thought … oh well, maybe it wasn’t just their time to come out and so we proceeded to go for the sardine run.

The moment our boat stopped to put down the anchor, one “happy” sea turtle was swimming towards us and went straight underneath our boat and came out on the other side.  We got so thrilled and excited.  I thought, how favored we were that when we went far to find them, we found none, but when we left their most common habitat, the God of all creation directed one of them to come to us.  My mind was amazingly troubled and trembled in awe to think that out of the vastness and hugeness of the sea, one sea turtle came directly towards where we were, at a perfect location and perfect timing.  That surely was a great favor too awesome to miss.

We got so favored that the resort attendants catered to every need we had and even more.  Whatever we requested were granted which most of them were beyond their checklist.  Fresh sea shrimps and fresh sea urchin (Uni) vendors just freely came within our reach and allowed us to experience to eat them in a casual, provincial yet exotic way. Hmmmm 🙂

Driving back to the city from the resort, the rain poured and poured and that for me meant one thing, that His favor made us enjoy a good weather while we were there, doing all the activities that we were supposed to do.

Among these listed, there were a lot more that the Lord opened my eyes TO SEE the favor of the Lord that fell upon us.

On our way back, favor still was profusely abounding.  The finale that the Lord made me witness that it was Him Who made me travel was that when I paid for my accommodation and food, the full 100% amount was given back to me.  And so I traveled ABSOLUTELY FREE!

A lot of times, when we don’t stop and see the little details of life unfolding before our very eyes each moment that passes by, it deprives us to have a grateful heart for the Lord’s loving-kindness and faithfulness all throughout the day.  We miss to enjoy that favor is indeed fun when we learn to recognize and acknowledge it.  Favor comes not because we are good or we have been good.  Remember that favor is unmerited.  Favor comes because God is good and His fiery love makes its way to articulate what is in His heart inspiring us, inviting us and wooing us into His loving embrace and showing us what it means to walk with Him.

At the end of the trip, with all that I saw, I simply whispered, ‘You did it again, Lord! Your favor surrounded me like a shield.  Great indeed is Your faithfulness.”

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your loving-kindness in the morning,
And Your faithfulness every night.  (Psalm 92:1-2 NKJV)

Take time, find time to go through what the Lord has done and is doing in your life each day and you will see too many of them to count one by one.  God’s favor indeed is fun and it is for a LIFETIME!