100 Days Of Favor (39 page)

When you fail and fall short of the law’s perfect standard, that is the time you should exercise your faith to say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” At that very moment when you are seething in anger at your spouse, or when you have just lost your cool on the road, it takes faith to say that you are righteous because you know that you have missed it. And you know what? The moment you say it, even if you are still in the midst of your anger, you will feel like you have ushered something good into that situation. You take a step back and start to relax, and the anger dissipates as you begin to realize your true identity in Christ.

Men, if you see a scantily clad woman on television or on the cover of a magazine and you are tempted, what is your first response? Are you sin-conscious or righteousness-conscious? Sin-consciousness will draw you to succumb to your temptation, whereas righteousness-consciousness gives you the power to overcome every temptation. That is why the enemy wants to keep you sin-conscious. Confessing your sins all the time keeps you sin-conscious. It is as if Jesus did not become your sin on the cross. Righteousness-consciousness keeps you conscious of Jesus. Every time you speak it, you magnify the work of Jesus on the cross. So believe and speak the truth: “I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” Then, you cannot help but see the results of magnifying the Lord Jesus and His finished work!

Today’s Prayer

Father, because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for me at the cross, I am always righteous in Your sight. Help me to always be mindful of my everlasting righteousness in Christ and to confess it in every situation I face. Because I am righteous in Christ, I am empowered by Your Spirit to overcome every challenge and reign in life!

Today’s Thought

Righteousness-consciousness gives me the power to overcome all odds.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 90

How To Increase In God’s Unmerited Favor

Today’s Scripture

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. —Romans 5:1–2

G
OD
’
S
W
ORD TELLS
us that “Jesus
increased
in
wisdom
and stature, and in
favor
with God and men” (Luke 2:52). This is a good verse to pray and speak over your children—that they first increase in favor with God, and then in favor with man. Your “vertical relationship” with God should always be given priority over your “horizontal relationship” with the people around you.

Because of Jesus’ perfect work on the cross, you are righteous by His blood, and you are greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved!

Like Jesus, you can increase in wisdom and in God’s unmerited favor. How? You have probably noticed that some believers seem to experience a lot more unmerited favor than others. I believe that this is because these believers understand the key to accessing God’s favor. Romans 5:2 clearly spells out that “we have access by faith into this grace [unmerited favor] in which we stand.” To gain access to your computer or your bank account, you need a password. To gain access to and increase in God’s unmerited favor, the “password” or key that we need to have is faith, faith to believe that YOU, ______________ (insert your name),
are
highly favored!

One of the things that I have taught my church members to do is to declare over themselves that they are
greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved.

“
How do we know that we are greatly blessed, Pastor Prince?”

Read Hebrews 6:13–14 for yourself. God wanted us to be so anchored in the sure and steadfast knowledge that He
will
bless us, the seed of Abraham, that He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”

“
How can we say that we are highly favored?”

Ephesians 1:6 tells us that by God’s grace (unmerited favor), God “made us
accepted
in the Beloved.” In the original Greek text, the word “accepted” is the word
charitoo,
which means “highly favored.”
¹

“
And are we really deeply loved by God?”

God didn’t just love us. John 3:16 says that “God
so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” He demonstrated how He SO loved us when He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us.

I pray that the verses that I have shown you here will help you believe that through Jesus, you are indeed greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved. If these truths are still not established in your heart, start speaking them. Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and declare boldly, “Because of Jesus’ perfect work on the cross, I am righteous by His blood, and I am greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved! I expect good things to come my way. I expect good success and I have a confident expectation of good!”

Once you receive Christ,
you
are standing on favor ground. You are no longer on condemnation ground. God looks on you as His favorite child!

“
But Pastor Prince, how can God have so many favorites?”

Hey, He is God. Don’t try to limit an infinite God with your finite mind. The Bible tells us that God counts the very hairs on each of our heads (Matthew 10:30). (I love my daughter very much, but I have never counted the number of strands of hair on her head.) His love for each of us is intimate and deeply personal. In His eyes, we are all His favorites!

Today’s Prayer

Father, establish me in the truth that I am greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved. Because of Your unmerited favor and Jesus’ perfect work on the cross, I am righteous by His blood. I believe and declare that I am greatly blessed, highly favored and deeply loved! Today, I expect good things to come my way. I expect good success! Hallelujah! Thank You, Father, for Your unmerited favor!

Today’s Thought

I am God’s favorite!

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 91

God Chooses The Weak To Bring Down The Mighty

Today’s Scripture

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. —1 Corinthians 1:26–27

G
OD IS INTERESTED
in your success. Even if you are not the swiftest, strongest, wisest, most knowledgeable and most skillful in the natural, God can still bless you with good success when you depend on His grace. You can rise above the system of meritocracy through His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favor. The system of the world only rewards the strong, while those who are weak are neglected and in some cases, even despised. But, in Jesus, there is hope for the weak.

In God’s hands of grace, the foolish and weak things become even wiser and mightier than the wise and mighty things of the world.

God’s way is completely opposite from the world’s way. According to 1 Corinthians 1:26, “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” Isn’t it fascinating to discover that while the world looks favorably upon the wise, mighty and noble, God does not? Let’s see in the next verse what God chooses instead: “God has chosen the
foolish things
of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the
weak things
of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”

Isn’t it amazing? God has chosen the foolish and weak things to qualify for His abundant blessings. But the verse does not say that the foolish and weak things will remain foolish and weak. Instead, by God’s unmerited favor, they will put to shame the so-called wise and mighty things in this world. In His hands of grace, the foolish and weak things become even wiser and mightier than the wise and mighty things of the world.

This is something I have experienced personally. In high school, I was a stutterer. I watched the other kids talking and reading aloud in class effortlessly while I had serious trouble getting words out of my mouth.

I remember how there was this teacher who would come into class, and always get me to stand and read aloud in class. He did this just for the sheer pleasure of watching me stammer and stutter, knowing full well what would happen. And true enough, while I tried to get the first word out—“th- th- th- th- the,” my classmates (especially the girls) would laugh, this teacher would laugh, and my ears would burn and turn red. This would happen every time he asked me to read in class.

Honestly, if you had told me then that I would be preaching to thousands of people every week, I would have run for cover under the table and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” If there was an area anyone who knew me back then believed I would fail in, it would have to be public speaking. But God looked down and said, “I am going to make a preacher out of this boy.”

One day, when I was tired of being miserable, I told the Lord, “Lord, I don’t have much to give You, but whatever I have I give You.” I remember how my voice was the thing that embarrassed me the most, so I said, “Lord, I give You my voice.” When I said that, I pitied Him for getting someone like me who had so many weaknesses.