Growing in Favor with God

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

GROWING IN FAVOR WITH GOD

Luke 2:41-52

41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43 After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." 49 "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"  50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them. 51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

NIV

We had already seen that Jesus grew and became strong, (implied) in the Spirit and was filled with wisdom and that the grace of God was upon him. Then we considered that we are the house of God, however, once again we are informed about something special about Jesus which we could also learn another lesson. We are told that he grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. We know that stature, according to the Greek word, heelikia, means to grow from a child into a man or become mature. This is a normal course of events in every person’s life, however, we do wonder about what Paul said about when he was a child he spoke like a child, and he thought like a child, but when he became a man, he put childish ways behind him. We could see this as simply growing in stature, from childhood to adulthood. We could also see this in the sense that as brand new believers, we were just a babe in the lord, our thinking was like that of an infant, we had gained no wisdom in the Lord, and we could not speak as a mature Christian, with the full measure of the influence of God upon us. But we grew, and we became more mature in the Lord, but that is a continual process, we are not fully grown, and must always be growing in the Lord. Then we could also see this as long as we live in this world we are but infants, but one day, we will become fully grown, as we stand in the presence of God on that day our resurrection is complete. However, the fullness of this narrative is that Jesus grew in favor with God and men. We do wonder if it is possible to grow more in favor with God than we already are because our favor with God could be seen as the fullest possible due to the fact that we are in Christ. Because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we can think that our favor with God is at the fullest. But then we also think that even though we are in Christ, could we be doing something to grow further in favor with God. This would not have anything to do with performing good deeds, but it has everything to do with our faith, our spiritual condition based on being governed by the divine power of grace, which is the divine influence upon our hearts and how that is reflected in our lives, which brings us right back to reflecting the glory of God with unveiled faces. This we can always grow more in as Paul puts it, “reflecting the glory of God in ever-increasing glory”. In addition, if we are constantly growing spiritually and, in favor, of the grace of God, then it would make perfect sense that we would grow in favor, the loving kindness with men. That is, we would be seen in a good light among people, and we would think this does not just mean our fellow believers, but all people we interact with. Then we also should be careful not to do that which would be considered as being proud, or boasting so as to look good before men. Let us simply grow in stature with God and that will accomplish growing in favor with others.