Are You Blessed and Highly Favored?
Saint 2: "Blessed and Highly Favored."
We're all familiar with the scenario.
This answer is so frequently used that it borders on cliché. There for a while I started to think something might be wrong with me if I didn't respond, "blessed and highly favored." But then I started wondering. Do people really understand what they're saying about themselves when they declare they are blessed and highly favored? It's gotta be more than just a feeling, right? So I did a little detective work. To take me deeper than the cliché and find out what it really means. This thing called Blessed and Highly Favored.
My research turned up Michelle McKinney Hammond's book, How to Be Blessed and Highly Favored. What I learned is that arbitrarily declaring that we're blessed and highly favored might not be the best idea. Hear me out, now. I'm not saying that we shouldn't say it at all, but we need to know exactly what it is we're declaring not only about ourselves, but about our walk with God.
When we say we are Blessed and Highly Favored, we are saying we:
Are Obedient to Him. Uh oh. We know we heard that still, small voice telling us to go right, but we went left. We know with every ounce of the Holy Ghost in us that we're about to do the wrong thing, but we do it anyway. We know that the mess we're currently praying God will straighten out could've been avoided if we'd just followed His instructions. It seems to me that the blessings and high favor were on the right. Had we'd just obeyed... Thank God His mercies are new every morning.
Have Faith in Him. Maybe it was a faith issue that had us leaning to our own understanding instead of obeying like we were supposed to. Let's be real. Who'd really expect us to blindly obey someone in whom we have no faith? But our faith in God needs to be such that we're unafraid to take the action necessary to accept what God has prepared for us. Faith allows us to be totally dependent upon Him, which is exactly what we need to be for Him to bless and favor us highly.
Know Him. We can't really know Him until we're firmly rooted in the Word. That's how we learn His likes and dislikes. It's how we learn to filter out our own desires and stick with His. It's where we learn how much he loves us. That's a blessing and a heap of high favor right there. But get this. It snowballs because propels us to serve Him out love and honor, rather than duty. We learn to love the Giver more than the gift. In turn, He blesses us all the more. It's a wonderfully precious circle.
Wait on Him. God is a master at timing. Have you ever noticed that? So why are we always in such a hurry to rush ahead of Him into places where we have no business? Is it really any wonder why we end up in a mess? But if we get in God's flow, how can we think we'd be anything other than highly favored and blessed?
Put Kingdom Purposes First. God loves it when we're so in love with Him that the only thing we want to do is what He has for us to do. From the beginning, He's blessed us all with unique gifts and talents that we are to use to bless the people around us. We need to become His hands working to fulfill the needs of others here on earth. To be effective and fruitful in this directive, God gives us everything we need "according to His riches in glory" to do the job He's set aside for us to do. Everything we need. That sounds like blessings and high favor to me.
Whew. I don't know about you, but I will have to declare that I'm blessed and highly favored with a lot more reverence from here on in.
Published by Lori Crawford
Lori Crawford is a screenwriter and synchronized swimmer who deeply loves the Lord Jesus Christ. View profile
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19 Comments
Post a CommentI know that when we say that we are blessed and highly favored, it is because we are. Through Jesus Christ, through FAITH in Him. You can receive your blessing only if you believe.
Children, He already told us that not all that say Lord Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Surely, those who He will say these words to are not blessed and highly favored. Everyone knows withn their own hearts if they are blessed and highly favored, and so they should express it thereby encourage others to get to that level. and yes, it takes some conscious effort.
Rose PT
(continued from previous comment)...same status as Mary.
Good afternoon to all, including the writer of this informative and well-written post. I respectfully disagree with the criteria a person must meet to be blessed and highly favored, because as the Bible states in Luke 1:28, both statuses simultaneously applied to Mary, as she was the vessel that Yahweh chose through whom the world would receive the Savior. I attest to the fact that we can be, and are, blessed from the Creator and by the Creator, but to be highly favored...when the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary in that regard, she had attained a status that no one before her nor after her would ever again achieve. So even though a great deal of what you said is how a Believer (I am loathe to say "Christian", because the word was originally intended as an insult and Yahweh did not instruct us to call ourselves by that name) makes a great deal of sense, I bow out from considering myself "highly favored", because I am convinced that making that claim would put me in the s
Luv it! Thoroughly enjoyed. I will look for more comments from you!
erm im only younge age of 12and i havnt been christend but iv never really been seriuse with god but my mum once told me that a fortune teller had said to her one of her children will be blessed and my mother thinks its me as i can sing very good my mum says i need help as i dont know wheather it is my brother he dosnt seem to be having much luck but my child hood hasnt been good either please help me !
This article makes perfect sense. We have a coworker that says this so much, most of us don't bother asking her how she is. Last week, I asked her without thinking, and I got "Blessed and highly favored by the Lord!", then she asked howI was doing. I could not help myself, I had to say, "stressed and highly irritated." I guess you had to be there to see the look on her face.
We, as Christians, are all blessed and highly favored. As someone put it below, God does not play favorites, we are all blessed as sons and daughters of the King. I do agree that we should understand what we are saying when we say it and a certain amount of reverence would be appropriate, but not required. God's love is too big to understand, so lets not judge others for saying they are blessed and highly favored, because whether you say it or not, as a Christian you are. What are these people speaking when they say they are blessed and highly favored? They are speaking words of life and not death, they are encouraging and not discouraging. We should be encouraged when we hear these words from our brothers and sisters and not judge them for what they may or may not be thinking when they say them. The next time you hear someone say they are blessed, then bless them with a handshake, a look in the eyes, and say to them "You are blessed!"
My fellow christians let us remember who The Lord God Almighty is...He a Sovereign if He said " I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy". Then who are we to say what God Almighty will or will not do? Just remember who The Lord Our God is, and He is a Sovereign and does what He pleases...
Get real, God has no favorites. This is one of those old saying in the black community that just caught on like many other saying that sounds good. Really how can u quantify your blessing with a lot to a little. This is one of those catch phrases used in one of those makeshift corner churchs by some self title new breed preacher calling themselves Pophets and Prophetesses etc. I guess Pastor, preacher, Rev. and all that played out so they had to come up with all these new titles.