Christmas upends our idea of what it means to be “favored” by God …

Have you ever played a word association game?

That’s when someone asks you to tell them the first thing that comes to mind when you hear whatever word they state. It can be any word. The idea behind the game is that your answer sheds some insight about you.

So what do you think of when you hear the word “favor”? Or to stretch it out, what do you think of when you hear the phrase “favored of God”?

That would excite some people. Pastors in some church circles wrongly teach to have the “favor” of God means you’re going to have “the good life” — healthy, wealthy, and living on “easy street”!

“Blessed.”

And then Christmas comes along, we’re introduced to a girl who is highly favored by God, and out the window goes today’s false ideas of “favor.”

“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!’”‭‭ Luke‬ ‭1:26-28.

Because Mary was favored by God, she was blessed to be picked to become the mother of Jesus Christ.

That sounds incredible … until you count the cost.

Mary was not married to Joseph, just engaged, and Joseph wouldn’t be the father, only the step-father.

Being pregnant with the Christ child nearly cost Mary her marriage. Joseph had every intention on ending their engagement, and would have if not for the angel Gabriel verifying to Joseph that the father of Mary’s baby was a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Joseph believed that explanation because of his own heavenly visitation, but no one else would.

Mary’s pregnancy would be a disgrace and disappointment to her parents, her family, and herself and Joseph and would result in a life of ridicule and scorn.

But …

She would forever be known as the mother of the Son of God.

It was favor to be used by God to bring forth the single Person who could save humanity from sin and death. What a wondrous thing to be included in that great mission!

But favor, while having its blessing, often has its costs.

To be saved from sin and be adopted by God as His children has costs. Things like a cross:

“Then he said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me,’” Luke‬ ‭9:23‬.

Just as Mary’s favor with God meant she participated in bringing the Savior of the world to the world, our having favor with God means we are used by God in the continuation of Jesus’ mission:

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:18-20‬.

And just as Mary’s favor also brought her hatred from the world, our walk with Christ will bring the same to us:

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me,” John‬ ‭15:18-21‬.

It is true that it is a wonderful thing to have God’s favor — you’ll want that! Just understand it may also come with a cost. The cost will always be worth the favor of God, but it is a cost to be paid.

Scotty