THE TIME OF GOD’S FAVOR

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favor, I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate  inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’”

“They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all My mountains into roads, and My highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar—some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains!

For the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

Isaiah 49:8-13

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

A friend is diagnosed with cancer. The future is unknown. He undergoes months of chemotherapy treatment and surgery. Slowly but surely the size of the tumor dwindles until the doctor tells him he is in remission and no longer in danger. He had passed through a time of God’s favor.

An acquaintance was in the midst of an abusive marriage. She felt trapped within it, imprisoned by the threats against her and the fear of what might happen if she left and tried to make it on her own. One day, she mustered up the courage and strength to escape. It wasn’t an easy time of it as she worked to get her matters in order and stand on her own two feet but she did it and along the way, she met a man who showed her what love was truly supposed to be. She had passed through a time of God’s favor.

A man I know was addicted to alcohol. He had allowed himself to get to the point where he couldn’t live without it and was willing to lose his family and career. That is until someone intervened and got him help. It was a tough journey to recovery and he still has to be careful that he doesn’t slip back into his addiction again but life is looking up and he is realizing how much joy life holds without alcohol. He had passed through a time of God’s favor.

Maybe you know a few examples of people who endured through difficult circumstances only to emerge on the other side of them into new and better days. The Lord has been in the business of pulling people through tough times for as long as people have existed. He cares for those He creates that much.

Perhaps there was no greater example of the love God had for people than His cherished Israelites, His chosen people who He made a special covenant with. They would be His people and He would always be their God. He always kept His side of the promise. Unfortunately, His people were not as faithful.

It was unfaithfulness that led the Israelites into an extended time where they were out of God’s favor. Their sinful worshipping of false gods led them straight into the crosshairs of God’s wrath and judgment with the penalty being 70 years of exile at the hands of the Babylonians after Judah and the holy city of Jerusalem were overrun and destroyed. God’s people would find themselves captives in a foreign land, enslaved and oppressed by a foreign people.

But all was not lost. For the same God who passed judgment upon them was a God of mercy, grace, and forgiveness, a God who would liberate them from their captivity and allow them to return home to rebuild.

In other words, a time of God’s favor would be waiting.

It’s this truth that we find in our scripture passage as we continue our study of Isaiah 49. Look again at these verses:

This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favor, I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate  inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’”

“They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all My mountains into roads, and My highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar—some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains!

For the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.  Isaiah 49:8-13

The Israelites would suffer through seventy years away from the homeland that God had blessed them with but a time of His favor was coming, a time when they would be delivered from their enslavement and freed to return home. Where everything had been laid to waste, new life would spring up and provide a bounty for God’s returning people. A new beginning was ahead and it would occur during the time of God’s favor because He cares for His people and has compassion for His afflicted ones.

Friends, these times of God’s favor happen all the time. In fact, you may have experienced it but called it something else like a blessing or gift from God. The good news is that there is a time of God’s favor ahead that is better than any we have experienced to date and better than any we will ever experience. The truth of the matter is that we will only have the chance to experience it once and there is only one prerequisite before that happens: we have to believe and trust in Jesus as Savior.

As you have probably guessed, this blessed, once-in-a-lifetime time of God’s favor comes when this worldly life ends and we are set free from all the things of the world that might afflict us into a eternal period of perfect peace, living with God the Father and Jesus, His Son, forever.  On that day of deliverance from death to life, we will be set free to live and love in the light of the Lord. No more pain. No more suffering. No more illness or injury. No more hardship or brokenness. No more sin. We will be liberated from it all thanks to a God that so loved us that He gave His only Son to pay the price for our sins.

Will you receive the good news today?

We serve a God who loves us, despite our shortcomings, a God who is for us and not only wants to be with us in the here and now but forever too. For He is a God who has compassion for His afflicted ones and through Christ, made the way for us to live in an everlasting time of His favor.

How should we respond?

I think the scriptures today give us a good place to start as we are encouraged to:

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains!

Let us all give thanks to the Lord God Almighty for He is good and His love endures forever (Psalm 136:1).

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com