Click Map for Details


Flag Counter

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Change Agent



Proverbs 8:35 (NLT)
For whoever finds me [Wisdom] finds life and receives favor from the LORD.

Develop your faith in the area of God’s favor; live expecting it all the time. Pray for favor. Trust God to open the right doors and to close the wrong ones. Ask the Lord for “divine connections” and friendships that are right for you. Confess that you have favor with God and He gives you favor with humankind. (Power Thoughts Devotional by Joyce Meyer, page 360).


When we review the comments of Joyce Meyer above our first reaction might be to wince at an egregiously crass posture of materialistic, prosperity religion. God will grant me the “right connections” and I will become rich, powerful, and famous. Well the quick antidote to this trend of thought is that the very Son of God was tormented by critics and detractors and was eventually crucified—these were the plush doors God opened for his Son some 2000 years ago.

Yet, I find Joyce Meyer’s thought very appealing and essentially correct. I think it is highly probable that significant achievers even when nonbelievers have an attitude and approach that in substance amount to Joyce’s synopsis—“Trust God to open the right doors and to close the wrong ones. Ask the Lord for ‘divine connections’ and friendship that are right for you.” I think successful people tend to behave in this way attributing it to faith (believers) or a transformative momentum (nonbelievers).

Now let’s look at the final statement in the quote of Joyce Meyer: “Confess that you have favor with God and He gives you favor with humankind.” This asserts that the favor of God will give you favor with humankind—it does not say with this swath of humanity but not the other—it says flat-out humankind. We must understand that Jesus did not nor does not meet this standard. He is still widely rejected by men; which is another way of saying that human perception sometimes has proven impervious to his proffered salvation. Yet we have the hope of his return when perceptions will be amenable to God’s light and love. Then, indeed, we will say with Isaiah (60:2-3 NLT):

Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth,
but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.
All nations will come to your light;
mighty kings will come to see your radiance.




Print Page