100 Days Of Favor (10 page)

I often tell my congregation that they should believe God not just for a job, but also depend on His favor for a
position of influence.
However, I also remind them to be careful not to get promoted
out
of their place of blessings, because not every promotion is necessarily God’s best for them.

Do you know that you can be promoted out of the good success that you are currently enjoying into a place where you enjoy only partial success? That promotion that you receive may also come with new responsibilities that will cause you to compromise your time with your family and draw you away from being in the house of God. All of a sudden, instead of being in God’s house on Sunday morning and bringing your kids for a picnic after church, you find yourself in the office every weekend. Perhaps you need to respond to urgent emails, resolve major crises, attend pressing board meetings or have yet another critical business trip to go for. You see, it can all sound very legitimate, but is this the “good success” that God wants for you?

Listen carefully to what I am saying. I am all for you being promoted in your workplace. In fact, I believe that God can promote you way beyond your educational qualifications and work experience! Just look at what God did for Joseph. He was promoted from being a slave (the lowest possible position) to an overseer in Potiphar’s house. And even when he was thrown into prison, the Lord’s favor caused him to be promoted again and he became the overseer of all the prisoners.

Joseph experienced one promotion after another until he became the prime minister of Egypt (the highest possible position)! There is no doubt that God wants to promote and increase you. But note that Joseph’s eyes were not fixed on any of the promotions that he received. His eyes were fixed on the Lord each step of the way.
That
made him safe for the next round of promotion and he grew in the
good success
that the Lord had for him.

Beloved, while you depend on His unmerited favor to bring you to a place of influence and increase, be conscious of Jesus’ goodness toward you. This will keep you walking in the kind of success that truly blesses you and makes you a blessing to others.

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank You that You can and want to promote me beyond my educational qualifications, natural abilities and work experience. As You only want me to have good success, I ask that You open doors of opportunities that are good for me and shut those doors that are bad for me. Help me to always keep my eyes on Jesus so that promotions and success do not get the better of me.

Today’s Thought

Fixing my eyes on Jesus makes me safe for the good success that He has for me.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 21

Be Safe For Success—Keep Your Eyes On Jesus

Today’s Scripture

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33

T
HE WORD OF
God says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Now, what is the kingdom of God? The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 14:17 that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The more you focus on beholding Jesus in all His loveliness and the less you struggle to earn things by your own merits, the more you become safe for greater success.

When you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and pursue the kingdom of God, which is Jesus’ righteousness, His peace and His joy, God’s Word promises that “all these things” will be added to you. “These things” refer to what you will eat, drink and wear. Jesus tells us that you do not have to be consumed by these concerns. If your Father feeds even the birds of the air, even though they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, how much more will He take care of you, who are of much more value to Him than the birds (Matthew 6:25–32)!

Beloved, keep your eyes on Jesus and His finished work on the cross. He will add the things that you need in this life to you and cause you to become safe for success. Now, turn with me to the Book of Jeremiah to see what the Lord says about having riches, wisdom and might.

…“Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

—
J
EREMIAH
9:23–24,
NAS

Let us be a people who will not depend on our own wisdom, might and riches (in summary, our own merits), but rather, let our boasting (dependence) be in understanding and knowing Jesus. Know that He is gracious and full of unmerited favor toward us. Know that He executes justice against all injustices. Know that He Himself is righteousness and He clothes us with His robes of righteousness. The more you focus on beholding Jesus in all His loveliness and the less you struggle to earn things by your own merits, the more you become safe for greater success in your life.

Today’s Prayer

Father, make me safe for greater success. I want to know more about the loveliness of Jesus and the perfection of His love for me, so that I will learn not to depend on my wisdom and might, but to depend on Jesus and Jesus alone. Please give me a greater revelation of Jesus’ righteousness, peace and joy that will help guard my heart from worry and fears and make me safe for greater success.

Today’s Thought

When I go after Jesus’ righteousness, peace and joy, God’s Word promises that what I need in life will come after me!

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 22

Desire God’s Unmerited Favor, Not Favoritism

Today’s Scripture

And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. —Acts 7:9–10

I
T IS IMPORTANT
for you to recognize that there is a significant difference between
God’s unmerited favor
and
favoritism.
God’s unmerited favor is based entirely on Jesus’ merit, and we received it through His finished work at the cross. We did nothing to deserve His favor. It is completely unmerited. Favoritism, however, stinks of self-effort. Individuals who rely on favoritism for promotion have to resort to apple polishing, office politics, manipulative tactics, backstabbing and all kinds of compromises just to get what they want. They use all their efforts to open doors for themselves, and in the process, they lose themselves.

You do not have to depend on favoritism to keep opportunities open for yourself when you have God’s unmerited favor!

God has a higher and better way for you. It hurts Him to see His precious children groveling like sycophants just to get ahead in life. If a door closes, so be it! Believe with full confidence that God has a better way for you. You do not have to depend on favoritism to keep opportunities open for yourself when you have God’s unmerited favor!

That was how Joseph operated. He depended on the Lord for his success, and not on favoritism, which would have required him to compromise his beliefs. When Potiphar’s wife kept trying to seduce Joseph to sleep with her, Joseph stood his ground on the firm foundation of unmerited favor. By the way, I believe that Joseph faced a real temptation. Don’t forget that Potiphar was a high-ranking officer. He was the captain of the guard, and a man of position, influence and wealth. As a man of the world, he would not have married an ugly woman for her inner beauty and would certainly not have married someone who looked ancient! He would definitely have chosen a young, beautiful woman to be his wife, and she was possibly one of the most beautiful women in the land.

So there is no doubt that she was a real temptation to Joseph, and that is why Joseph had to run! This woman didn’t just tempt Joseph once. The Bible tells us that “she spoke to Joseph day by day,” enticing him to lie with her (Genesis 39:10). But Joseph refused, saying, “There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he [Potiphar] kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God?
” (Genesis 39:9).

From his words, it is clear that Joseph knew the source of his success, favor and blessings. He did not see giving in to Potiphar’s wife as a great wickedness and sin against Potiphar alone, but against God too. He knew that every blessing that he had experienced was a result of
the Lord’s
favor on him. He knew that it was not Potiphar who promoted him from the position of a lowly slave to become the overseer of Potiphar’s entire estate. It was the Lord!

Similarly in your life, know and rejoice that it is the Lord who is the source of your blessings and success! You don’t have to resort to trying to win the favor of significant people in your life. It is the Lord’s favor on you that sets you up for recognition, promotion and increase.