100 Days Of Favor (40 page)

To cut a long story short, after I gave all my weaknesses to the Lord, something supernatural happened. I stopped being conscious of my stuttering and it supernaturally disappeared. In the area of my weakness, God supplied His strength. About two years ago, one of the teachers from my high school days came to my church and sat in one of the services I was preaching in. After the service, she wrote me a note that said, “I see a miracle. This must be God!”

Why does the Lord choose foolish and weak things to confound the wise and mighty things of this world? The answer is simple. It’s so that “
no flesh should glory in His presence”
(1 Corinthians 1:29). God chooses the things that are weak in the natural so that no man can boast of his
own
ability—all glory redounds to the Lord.

I believe that the reason God chose someone like me to preach the gospel is so that others (especially those who had known me before) would look at me and say, “This must be God!” and God gets the glory. Now, seeing how God has used my voice, my main weakness, to bring life transformation and miracles not only to people in Singapore, but also around the world through our television broadcasts, I feel humbled because I know what I was like before God touched me. My friend, it is those who are proud and who depend on their human strength that God cannot use. So when you look at yourself and see only weaknesses, depend on God’s unmerited favor and know that God can and will use you!

Today’s Prayer

Father, You know all about my weaknesses. Yet, You are willing to use me for Your purposes and glory. Therefore, I give You all my weaknesses and lean wholly on Your unmerited favor. In Your hands, those weaknesses will become strengths. Thank You for Your unmerited favor that will cause me to rise above the world’s system of meritocracy and experience success beyond my natural abilities, experience and qualifications!

Today’s Thought

Even if I am not the smartest or strongest, God can bless me with good success when I depend on His unmerited favor.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 92

When God Can Use You

Today’s Scripture

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” —1 Corinthians 1:30–31

I
T IS
J
ESUS
, His wisdom in your life, His righteousness and His perfect redemptive work on the cross that make you a success. So when you boast of your success, you can boast only in Jesus. Without Jesus, you have nothing to boast about. But with Jesus in your life, you can boast in Him and Him alone for every success and blessing that comes through His unmerited favor. If you are strong, mighty and wise in yourself, then God’s unmerited favor cannot flow. But when you realize your weaknesses and foolishness, and depend on Jesus instead,
that
is when His unmerited favor can flow unhindered in your life.

When you acknowledge your weaknesses and depend on Jesus, His unmerited favor can flow unhindered in your life.

We see this in the story of Moses. In his first 40 years as an Egyptian prince who was looked up to and admired, he thought that he knew everything. The Bible says that in this first 40 years, Moses was “mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22), but God could not use him. However, in the next 40 years, something happened to Moses. He had fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, and went to dwell in the Midian desert. He became a shepherd and was no longer considered mighty in words nor deeds. Indeed, he had even become a stutterer (Exodus 4:10). And at this point in his life, when he probably thought that he was a has-been, insignificant compared to what he had been, and that his glory-days were behind him, God appeared to him and said, “…I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people…out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10).

Forty years earlier, at the zenith of his ability, Moses could not even bury properly one Egyptian whom he had killed—he was found out and forced to flee (Exodus 2:11–15). But now, stripped of his dependence on his human strength and mindful of his weaknesses, he stepped into his call, dependent solely on the unmerited favor of God. And this time, when Moses waved his rod over the sea, the sea covered tens of thousands of Egyptians perfectly (Exodus 14:26–28).

The Bible tells us that “God resists the proud, but gives grace [unmerited favor] to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). Beloved, God will not impose His unmerited favor on us. Whenever we want to depend on ourselves and our wisdom, He will allow us to do so. His unmerited favor is given to those who humbly acknowledge that they cannot succeed in their own strength and ability. When we let go and depend on His unmerited favor, He will take over and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves!

Today’s Prayer

Father, I humbly acknowledge my utter inability to accomplish anything in life in and of myself. Therefore, I turn away from my reliance on self-effort, and I choose to rely on You and Your unmerited favor alone. There can only be good results in my life when YOU are the one working in and through me. Any good success that I have today is because of You and Your unmerited favor. Thank You for doing for me and through me what I cannot do in and of myself.

Today’s Thought

When it is not me but God Himself working in and through me, the results are perfect!

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 93

Submission Releases God’s Favor Into Your Life

Today’s Scripture

Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp. And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand…” —1 Samuel 17:17–18

W
HEN
G
OD WANTED
to bring down a mighty giant who was terrorizing the nation of Israel, He sent someone who was weak in the flesh. Think about it. In the eyes of the world, what could be weaker against a trained and fearsome soldier than a young boy who had no formal military training, no armor, was dressed in a humble shepherd’s garb, and did not even carry any real weapons other than a sling and five smooth stones from a brook? It is no wonder that Goliath mocked this young shepherd boy and his strategy. When David stepped into the battlefield, Goliath asked him sarcastically, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” (1 Samuel 17:43).

Submission to God-appointed leadership will always cause God’s favor to flow in your life.

The implications of this battle were massive. It was not just a duel or contest between two individuals. The Israelites and Philistines had agreed to each send a warrior who would represent their nation. The defeated warrior would commit his entire nation to become servants to the other nation. It would be an understatement to say that a whole lot was riding on this one fight. And who does God send to represent Israel? In natural terms, He sent possibly the most unqualified person onto that battlefield in the Valley of Elah.

David was not even a soldier in the army of Israel! Do you remember how this shepherd boy ended up at the battlefield to begin with? David was there to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers who were in the army (1 Samuel 17:17–20)! And yet, David found himself standing on the battlefield as Israel’s representative against the haughty Goliath. From delivering bread and cheese, he was now called upon to deliver the entire nation of Israel.

David was at the right place at the right time because he humbled himself and submitted to his father’s instructions to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers. Beloved, this is something you need to understand. Submission to God-appointed leadership will always cause God’s favor to flow in your life, and you will find yourself, like David, at the right place at the right time!

The Bible says that we should not despise the day of humble beginnings (Zechariah 4:10). There is nothing glamorous about delivering bread and cheese, but David did not despise it. And that put him right in the Valley of Elah, the wind blowing in his hair—a young shepherd boy with no military experience representing the nation of Israel against a mighty giant who was a man of war from his youth.

This is what God loves to do. He loves to take the foolish and weak things to shame the wise and mighty things of the world. So beloved, humble yourself and submit to the authorities that God has placed above you. And when you are faithful to carry out small tasks assigned to you, His favor is released in your life and you might just find yourself doing great exploits for God!