THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRAYER AND GOD’S FAVOR
Perhaps this question is on your mind right now: What is the difference between praying and
asking for God’s favor?
Isn’t “praying for God’s favor” just a different way of talking about prayer? Aren’t they the same
thing?
Yes and no. I think there is one similarity and two differences.
Both prayer and praying for favor can be single events.
Sometimes prayer and praying for God’s favor refer to a single cause-and-effect event. For
instance, in the Old Testament we’re told that King Jehoahaz allowed God’s people to follow evil
practices, so the Lord allowed the King of Aram to oppress them. Seeing the error of his ways,
we’re told in 2 Kings 13:4‑5, “Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord’s favor, and the Lord listened to
him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel. The Lord provided a
deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram.”
In this particular instance prayer and seeking God’s favor were the same thing. Jehoahaz asks
for something (the implication is he asked for deliverance) and God answers his prayer by
raising up a deliverer.
But there are two other instances where prayer and seeking God’s favor are clearly different.
Favor often refers to seeking help without a specific answer in mind.
More often than not, seeking God’s favor refers to asking for God to do something when we
don’t know exactly what we need. When Jacob “begged for [God’s] favor” (Hosea 12:4), we’re
never told what Jacob had in mind. Yes, he wanted to be rescued from his brother, but he
needed more than that: reconciliation, healing, strength for him not commit suicide, and so forth.
Jacob surely had a million things on his mind that he needed help with. Jacob wanted God to
simply do something.
Favor often refers to a continual state of blessing.
The best way to think of favor is when we seek and find God’s favor we end up being favored.
We experience a continual state of receiving God’s blessings without needing to stop and think
about what we need and ask for them. They keep coming whether we pray or not.
I have a friend who started a new church in a unique way. He gathered a bunch of people in a
room and had them call every single person that lived in a five-mile radius and invited them to
their church’s grand opening. They made 35,000 phone calls and 350 people showed up.
When I first heard about that, I was impressed.
“Wow, 350 people showed up because you called them on the phone?”
Then I started thinking about what it would be like to try to build a church with 350 people who
love getting telemarketing phone calls. Can you imagine? I wondered about things like, Would
they each bring their sixty-two cats to the service? Would they have any money left over to tithe
after buying copious amounts of wacky insurance and timeshares and giving money to political
candidates? When someone’s cell phone went off in the service would they all instinctively jump
up to answer it?
Believe it or not, that church has gone on to become quite an influential church in southwest
Ohio. I know because Mike Mack, a good friend of mine, was one of the people who got one of
their phone calls.
Mike was home one day when a woman randomly called him and asked for another person.
“I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.”
“Well, how about I talk to you?” the woman said.
For the next twenty minutes, she described a new church that was starting in Centerville, Ohio.
It was going to be a different kind of church, and he should come and check it out.
He did.
Soon afterward he gave his life to Christ and was baptized. Soon after that he felt called to
become a pastor. Soon after that, he found himself attending a Christian college.
Today Mike is one of the leaders in our country helping churches build thriving community
through small groups.
I believe that Mike’s story happened because Tom, the pastor of that church, was favored, in
the same way Daniel was favored. Tom didn’t pray a specific prayer that God would
miraculously intervene in wrong-call scenarios, any more than Daniel had prayed a specific
prayer that God would intervene in his situation. God caused Mike Mack to not hang up the
phone that day. God changed his mind.
God intervened in both because both Tom and Daniel were favored.
*Taken from Finding Favor by Brian Jones. Copyright (c) 2018 by Brian Jones. Published by
InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL.www.ivpress.com
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