Finding Favor with God

I honestly feel like God is questioned sometimes because we hear all the time that he has favor over all of us, but then when something bad happens...it's like he doesn't.

God's favor does not automatically bring instant success or fame.

I think of all the injuries I had throughout my basketball career...I believe I had three surgeries throughout my career...One of the things I struggled with the most was when I would go to the doctor for a follow-up after my surgery and he could have great news...He would tell me that I could play in 2 weeks...but that never seemed to happen...

One of the toughest parts was telling my teammates and coaches that I was probably going to get cleared and then finding out it would be a little longer. It just sucked all the time. Those injuries that I experienced throughout college were some of the toughest things I have gone through. It might sound silly, but basketball was everything to me for a time in my life and if I couldn't please my teammates and coaches, I wasn't happy with myself either.

No matter how hard those times were for me, I knew that God always had favor over me...it just didn't happen right away. When I think of God's favor in my injuries, I think of my senior year. I had knee surgery 3 weeks before the season started, and I didn't miss a day of practice or a game all year. My senior season was the only year of my career that happened.

Big picture - I didn't get a taste of God's favor on the court until my senior year of college. That's four years.

And we expect to see that instant success and fame right away? It's fair to have that expectation, but not very realistic. Sometimes you might experience it right away, other times it might take a couple weeks, months, or even years.

Mary had a similar experience when it came to her giving brith to Jesus.

The only reason she conceived and gave birth to him was because she had found favor with God.

To give birth to the Son of God is an absolutely incredible honor..

But, his blessing on Mary, the honor of being the mother of the Messiah, would lead to much pain: her peers would ridicule her; her fiancé would come close to leaving her; her son would be rejected and murdered.

But through her son would become the world's only hope, and this is why Mary has been praised by countless generations as the young girl who "found favor with God."

Her submission was part of God's plan to bring about our salvation. If sorrow weighs you down and dims your hope, think of Mary and wait patiently for God to finish working out his plan.

While it's so easy to expect good things to happen right away, we need to take a look from a 30,000 foot view. No matter how hard what we are going through is, God is going to be faithful to you. God has never not done anything that he said he would.

Find your favor with God, I promise you it's there...it's just a matter of time before it all comes into fruition.