Find Freedom In God's FavorSample

He Knows Your Name

Favor in the Bible is a deeply intimate and profoundly personal relationship between two people. 

On one occasion, for example, Moses prays for the Lord to go with the people as they head out into the wilderness. God says to him, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name” (Exodus 33:17, ESV). Did you see it? God’s favor toward Moses means that God knows Moses by name. That’s no cold, mechanical reservoir of blessing whose valves have to be monitored. That’s a relationship between two people who know each other’s names.

I hope you can see the point here, because it’s important that we start out our week of devotions by understanding why having the favor of God is such a good thing. It’s not just that he begins to pour out some sort of divine gold dust on your life so that good things start happening to you and people start treating you with more respect. To be in God’s favor means for him to relate to you personally, to look on you with pleasure and even friendship. It is to be in a sweet and intimate relationship with the God of the universe.

If you’re a Christian, have you ever stopped to consider that mind-blowing reality? The Creator of the cosmos, God himself, knows your name! His face looks full into your own, not with anger or disappointment but with a radiant smile. Because you bring him joy. 

Oh, if we could only grasp that truth and drive it deep into the bedrock of our souls, it would change everything! Instead of facing life with fear and trembling, we’d walk through it with confidence, knowing that God himself rejoices over us. Instead of being puffed up with pride on our good days and beat down with guilt on our bad ones, we’d keep our eyes firmly locked on eternity—and on the smiling face of the God who knows our name.

What’s hard for you to accept about the idea that God knows you and wants to befriend you? What about it gives you hope and encouragement?