Divine Favour and 2012

Happy New Year everyone! It is a new year and with each new year comes new ideas, new commitments, new challenges and new opportunities. As we gaze off into the future most of us will either view it through the eyes of faith or the eyes of fear. We will either see potential and perhaps the making of a new dream to pursue or we can see it more like a nightmare and fear what could be coming, what could happen to us, to our jobs, our families and our personal lives. Some of us will seek to make resolutions to lose a few pounds or stop some other bad habit. But, unfortunately most of us end up joining the ranks of those who fail within a few short days or weeks of the new year’s start. But here is an interesting question. If someone came along and asked you, “What is the one thing you pray about the most? What would be your answer? Safety, health, prosperity, children, parents, unsaved loved ones, future mate? What is it that you tend to bring to God more than anything else? Recently I was reading a book about prayer called “The Circle Maker”, it is an inspirational writing designed to fan into fame our prayer lives. If you feel your prayer life could use a lift as you approach this new year I highly recommend it to you. Mid way through the book the author Mark Batterson is writing about the promises that are found in the scriptures that God makes to his people. He believes that by conservative estimates there are more than three thousand promises found throughout the pages of the Bible. He rightly believes that however many promises there are, that in Christ all of these promises were fulfilled. It is therefore also true that in Christ and through faith in Christ that we come to posses these promises as our own. His question is: How many of these promises have we prayed with full assurance that God will answer? His suggestion is that we must commit ourselves to reading the bible as a promise book and a prayer book at that same time. He writes on page 95, “While reading is reactive, prayer is proactive. Reading is the way to get through the bible; prayer is the way you get the bible through you. As you read the Holy Spirit will quicken certain promises to your spirit. It’s very difficult to predict what and when and where and how, but over time, the promises of God will become your promises.” It was during one of these reading/prayer times that he stumbled across a passage that would become for him the prayer that he prays more than any other prayer. It is found in the blessing that Moses gave to Joseph as they were about to enter the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 33:13-17. In verse 16 Moses declares the blessing of the “favour of him who dwelt in the burning bush”. This is what Mark prays for often and for pretty much any and every situation he finds himself in; the favour of God. The divine favour of him who dwelt in the burning bush! Could I make a suggestion to you on this first day of the year 2012? I would suggest that you follow the example of our brother in Christ Mark Batterson and begin to read/pray scripture. I would also suggest that praying for God’s favour is something that all of us are meant to do in whatever situation we find ourselves in. May the favour of him who dwelt in the burning bush rest upon us as we enter 2012.