Favor for Life

Psalm 30:5
For his anger is but for a moment his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but Joy comes with the morning.

What so many children long for is the love and attention of their fathers. My seven year old pleaded with me the other day, “Daddy come watch me hit the ball.” All he wanted was his daddy to smile and congratulate him on his ability to hit the golf ball across the front yard. When I did give him my undivided attention you could see the Joy in his face from his father’s favor.

When we are our Heavenly Father’s obedient children his favor is with us. Just like an earthly father God also chastises us when we are not obedient.

Hebrews 12:8-10 (New International Version)
8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

The Word says that he disciplines those he loves, if he doesn’t correct us then we are illegitimate children. David said, “His anger is but a moment.” David knew this because he sinned against God with adultery and taking a census in 2 Samuel 24. What’s wrong with a census? Well for David it meant he had shifted his faith from a God that helped him as a teen-ager defeat a Giant to a carnal man that had put his trust in a vast army. Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. After David counted the men God sent a plague for three days killing 70,000 people but because he loved David and Israel God relented. “His anger is but for a moment, his favor for a lifetime.”

Isn’t it good to know that when you mess up and God disciplines you that his favor outlasts his wrath? Had it not been for grace and mercy we would have been wiped out a long time ago.

I’ve quoted this verse every Sunday out of context, “weeping may endure for the night but Joy comes in the morning.” The weeping is not because of some arbitrary bad events happening to me. Instead the weeping in this context is because of some bad decisions and God is disciplining the psalmist and it’s the favor of God that returns to him the next morning after the discipline in the night.

As a little boy I was very mischievous. My little brother and I set a fencerow on fire playing with matches one evening. My mother, grandmother, and aunts rushed outside to beat the fire out and that evening my mother beat me. I fell asleep crying but the next morning she held me in her arms and said, “Son, I love you but you have got to make better decisions.” Weeping endured for the night but in the morning I got my Joy back. It’s morning time and God let you see another day!

Whatever you did the day before:
1. Repent of it
2. Learn from it
3. Don’t repeat it
4. Receive your forgiveness
5. Make your retribution. To stop the plague on his people David offered a sacrifice to God. 2 Samuel 24:24But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.
6. Forgive yourself
7. Walk in favor the rest of your life.

Dear God, thank you for your favor. Thank you for correcting me and not killing me. I am so happy this morning that you still love me and you are smiling on the work of my hands. I love you more than ever Father and thank you for loving me.

In Jesus Name,

Amen.