Remember me, Lord, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them, that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise. Psalm 106:4-5
“So whether believers are rich, or in robust health, or wonderfully endowed with the Spirit’s gifts, they acknowledge that God’s favor is it’s only source. Their joy is real, and so is their thanksgiving. That is how they will use the good things of this present life. Nevertheless, while life for believers may be easy today, they will be ready tomorrow to endure whatever afflictions God may send them. He may, perhaps, take from them the goods he has give. They are prepared to surrender them, since they know they have received them on one condition–that they should hand them back whenever God should choose.”
John Calvin in Sermons on the Beatitudes 77-78 as quoted by Thomas D. Hawkes in Sanctification: A User’s Guide to Becoming More Like Jesus (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2020) 207.
Special thanks to my friend and Daily Meditations reader, Don Knox, for alerting me to this quote and the recently released book from which it was drawn.
Calvin echoes the psalmist in noting that favor comes from only one source, the Lord God. When it comes to us, it is coupled with joy and praise. It also comes with responsibility. He refers to this as the “one condition” or as we might say in modern times, the fine print.
We are not the owners or masters of anything. We have been commanded to enjoy and share everything, and not to hold back anything for ourselves. Sadly most put up walls to avoid suffering or affliction when those experiences are often our greatest growth seasons.
No wonder so many of us in modern times appear as immature believers. We are not willing to endure the discomfort, the suffering, and the stretching that Jesus promised we would endure. Perhaps those who avoid such a path show they are not really sheep in the fold.
What I do know is this. The favor of God is sweet. It brings joy. And it requires complete surrender. Thanks God for the favor you give and for the afflictions as well. It’s all good because through it all we grow. Remember each of us Lord, in your mercy.