DAY 39 - PARTY FAVOR
MILANNA MARTILLARO, YA CREATIVE & PRODUCTION RESIDENT
“Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it.” Proverbs 11:27
The book of Proverbs is a book full of wisdom and insight. Throughout this book of the Bible, you can find wise truths to build your life and moral standard on. There are 31 chapters in proverbs and a good trick for reading through them, memorizing them, and applying them to your life is to read one for each day of the month! By the end of the year, you will have read the book of Proverbs TWELVE times, and in turn, you will probably have gained some wisdom to apply to your everyday life! I know that adding this to my reading has added countless amounts of thoughtful reminders to my life.
The other day, during my day 11/chapter 11 reading I came across this verse about seeking favor and it hit me on a personal level. I am a stage 5 people-pleaser. I go out of my way to earn the favor of friends, teachers, leaders, peers, etc. I even thrive off every time my grandma tells me I am her favorite. I think it’s part of our human nature to desire to gain favor. And earning favor in the sight of the Lord is the most important kind. More often than not, my prayers for my loved ones, and if I am being quite honest myself, is for the favor of the Lord to be upon my life and the lives of the ones I love. I mean who doesn’t want God’s favor, right?
This verse, however, brought me a fresh perspective on how we actually receive God’s favor. When we diligently seek good, we then, in turn, earn God’s favor. This verse also tells us that when we are more concerned with favor itself, we receive opposition. God is far more concerned with our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7). And The Lord’s desire for us is for us to live a life that reflects his goodness and purity. This is what earns us favor. When we are DILIGENTLY seeking out goodness to move in our hearts, when we are persistent in living our days more like Jesus, God gives us favor!
If God’s focus is our hearts, ours should be too! Before we pray for this to happen or that to happen or favor to come into our lives, we should be praying for God to help the fruit of goodness to flow through us.