Have you ever heard the phrase “favor ain’t fair?” It’s one of those sayings we toss around in church circles, often intending to describe the unfair advantage that comes when the favor of God falls on your life. But I think we’ve gotten it wrong. Maybe not the phrase itself, but our use of it. Favor really isn’t fair, but not in the way we might have thought.
There is something He knows that we don’t. Something is brewing that we can’t see. We get focused on the disappointment, the frustration of interrupted plans, all the while forgetting that we are part of a bigger plan.
Last week, we discovered that we’ve been lied to; told that we can live consumed with culture and sprinkle Christianity in, as long as it doesn’t challenge our comfort. But the truth is, our God is a jealous one. He doesn’t share, and lordship can’t exist in compromise. Christianity was never intended to make us comfortable.
Culture and Christianity were not meant to coexist without conflict. By definition, they cannot agree. The rise of one often coincides with the decline of the other. And in the meantime, we’ve been convinced that we can be both followers of Jesus and proponents of the culture. They told us we could have both. They lied.
This is all Kingdom work. We are on assignment.
And yet, Jesus still cares about what makes us cry. Whether we’re triggered because our ice cream cone fell on the sidewalk or we’re just overflowing with grief over the life we thought we’d have, He cares.
On the other side of our five senses, there is battle raging. We can’t always see its soldiers, but we can experience the impact of their weapons. Scripture declares that no weapon formed against us will prosper. But does that mean they won’t wound?
Commitment has a cost, and in our conversations, we’ve always focused on our commitments to Jesus. Scripture is very clear that we have to count the cost of choosing to follow Jesus, but I wonder… is it possible to know how expensive this pursuit is really going to be?
Does the cost account for inflation? Years, maybe even decades later, are we still willing to pay?
We don’t have to heed every bit of instruction just because it sounds like wisdom. In fact, this may even lead us astray. Remember the Garden of Eden? The serpent was crafty with his words, wrapping his lies up in truth. Or consider Jesus in the wilderness. When Satan quoted scripture to Jesus, he wasn’t lying. That was actual scripture; it was just misused. So how do you know which voice to heed? When the serpent sounds like God and the Devil memorizes more scripture than you do, how do you figure out who is telling the truth?
Distractions have a tendency to get us flustered, bothered, and fixated. But giants? They just fall. One stone slung with the boldness and confidence that nothing can derail what God has set into motion, and down goes Goliath.
If David had given in to his brother’s distraction, he would have missed the mission God had for him at that battlefield. He might never have fought the very battle that gave him royal access. I wonder, what distraction might be keeping you from fighting the giant that would lead to your royal access?