No, this is not a story about me walking a dog in the fog. For starters I don’t even own a dog. It’s not because I don’t like dogs or I like saying no every time my kids ask for one. It’s because we have had two stolen right out of yard and the kids were heartbroken. Don’t worry I promised we will get one when we get moved and have a fenced back yard. Anyway, this is a blog of my personal opinion about a lot of the teaching I’m hearing lately about the FOG(the favor of God).
Don’t get me wrong I do believe as a blood bought child of God that I have been “rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of His dear Son”(Col. 1:13). And as a part of this Kingdom I have been given certain rights and privileges and I have His favor and I’m blessed because of it! But a lot of the teaching I’ve heard is all superficial and is just being used to give people a false feelgood and a false sense of security. These “exhort er” preachers quote a lot of good scriptures about God’s favor and blessings and get the people all excited about how good it is and nothing bad is going to happen. But what happens to these hearers when the bottom does fall out? All the feelgood quotes in the “favor arsenal” won’t do people a bit of good if they haven’t been grounded in the full truth and the whole council of God! Paul warned us of this in 2 Timothy 4: 1-5.
Let’s look at some people in the bible that we would considered to have been living in the FOG.We have Joseph in Genesis.It was apparent that God definitely had His hand on Joseph’s life. God even gave him dreams of the greatness and favor he would have on his life. While living in God’s favor, Joseph was: sold into slavery by his own brothers; he was given charge over Potiphar’s whole estate; he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and put in prison; he was put in charge of the whole prison; he was brought out to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and put in charge of all of Egypt. I’m sure Joseph enjoyed the mountain top experiences but I don’t think he was shouting the rooftop off when the bad stuff was happening to him. But during the bad stuff I believe he was standing on the “voice of truth” that God had revealed and spoken to him. He wasn’t standing on some feelgood sermons he had heard some man speak to him. Also Mary in the New Testament was referred to by Gabriel as “blessed and highly favored”. Do you think she was feeling “highly favored” when she was an outcast of society for being pregnant before she was married. Or when her son was being crucified for doing nothing wrong in and of Himself. Paul was chosen by God to spread the gospel into the then known world. God did some pretty awesome things through Paul and wrote most of the New Testament through him. But read some of the things that happened to him in 2 Corinthians 11:22-28. Did he have God’s favor on his life or not? In these examples God had something great in mind when he chose them to carry out His will through there lives!
This is where the DOG (Depending on God) comes in. We must depend on God in every situation of life we may be in(good or bad), and we must “walk by faith not by sight”. We still have to walk the DOG in the FOG. Like our Bible contemporaries we have also been chosen by God to carry out His will here on earth! God is not being mean to us or punishing us when bad things happen to us but He does allow certain things to happen in our lives that are ultimately a part of us carrying out His will. Are we only going to confess His favor when all is well or are we going to be real people of faith and confess His goodness and faithfulness even when we are going through some stuff in this journey called life! God is real and all His promises are yes and amen in Christ, so let’s be grounded in the Word and say with Paul that “God’s grace(favor) is sufficient” and “though I’m weak (God) makes me strong”! We are difinetly people of God’s favor and we can expect Him to do some awesome things in and through our lives! God will bless the righteous and His favor does surround us like a shield(Psalm 5:12) So don’t go tell your friends that I don’t believe in the favor of God. The next time the enemy knocks the bottom plank out from under you remember a glorious truth from the Word of God “There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendor. The eternal God is your refuge, and His everlasting arms are under you!’(Deuteronomy 33: 26-27 NLT). Don’t let your DOG get away from you when your walking in the FOG!
