The Sign of Favour

UV 1132-10,000 The Sign of Favour

Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, Lord has holpen me, and comforted me.
Psalm 86 v 17

Jesus said, “ Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” When we are persecuted and troubled without any provocation or justifiable reason, we are to consider ourselves blessed by the Lord for the Lord will intervene in the situation on our behalf. If we look to Him for a sign of His favour, He will come to our help and comfort us. He is the great Ebenezer whose help is sufficient to enable us to overcome even the greatest of troubles, the most severe of persecution. The Holy Spirit is the great Comforter who will comfort and assuage our feelings, even the deepest of our sorrows and grief. When the Lord wipes a person’s tears over a particular issue, he or she never needs to be sorrowful over that again.

Gideon asked for a sign of favour from the Lord when the Israelites were being greatly troubled and the Lord had anointed him as leader. He sought the sign of favour of the fleece getting wet on the first occasion and the second time to re-confirm the ground around was wet with dew. Hezekiah the king of Israel sought a sign from the Lord in turning the shadow on the sundial forward some degrees and then backward. Abraham’s sign of favour when he was most distressed in spirit that he was about to sacrifice his precious son Isaac was a lamb that God provided. Jesus in like manner was the sign of favour for all mankind. Signs are God’s signature and emblem to show that He is on our side in life’s conflicts and challenges, that we are not alone and that He has a plan and a solution to redeem us from whatever situation is causing distress to us.

I too have specifically asked for a sign of God’s favour in times when I was discouraged. The Lord answered with the rare sign of a reverse rainbow that I photographed with my cell phone. It was a sign that the Lord ‘s salvation is finished- the seven colours are the sign of the glorious way the Lord completes His plan in our lives. Our salvation is not meant just for the hereafter but it begins here and now. The rainbow is a sign that the Lord sitting on His throne has ordained our salvation in seven different but linked domains- physical- our health and healing, emotional- our joy and feelings, intellectual- our understanding, knowledge and wisdom, social- our relationships, professional- our work and our challenges, financial- our need, spiritual- our eternal life and our relationship with the Triune God. We will wax strong in these areas while our enemies will melt like wax in the presence of the Lord. They will have to eat their words while we eat the Word of the Lord. They will be confounded, astounded and ashamed at the extent of their folly and their failure to execute their evil designs for our downfall. What they plot for evil, God will turn to good.

Prateep V Philip