“This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he requested because the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.” – Ezra 7:6
This verse stood out to me this morning as I was reading – Ezra found favour with the King of Babylon because God was with him. The hand of God was upon him.
It made me think about the power of God’s favour and blessing on our lives. I wonder if in our day and age we treat the power of having God’s blessing on us too lightly.
A little like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. He didn’t see the immediate value of it and so traded it for something that he felt would get him further, quicker.
Contrast that with Jacob who did the trade with Esau to get the birthright, got in first for his father’s blessing, and then ended up wrestling the angel saying ‘I won’t let you go until you bless me!’. He saw value and power in having God’s blessing, favour and hand upon his life.
Sometimes we see people who it’s like everything just ‘falls into their lap’. We could just say they’re lucky and things just seem to happen for them. But I believe that when God’s favour is resting on our lives, that we’ll start to just get things that others have to work for. Situations will just ‘go our way’. I’m not saying that there will never be any trouble or difficulty, or that we won’t face our share of hardship. Daniel had God’s favour on his life, and he still ended up being thrown to the lions.
But it’s like even when things conspire against us and everything is going wrong, when we’re walking with Jesus – there’s always a way through. And the great thing is that He is the one who, like Jacob, got the birthright, got his fathers blessing, and wrestled with sin and death so that we could walk in that favour that God promises us.
As a child of God, his favour rests upon you – not because of what you’ve done but because of what Jesus did. When we truly believe that in all things we’re walking in blessing and favour – that’s when we’ll start to see it in our lives.