Year of Realization - Day 65: You can approach Him assured of His favor.

“Again the king held out the gold scepter to Esther. So she rose and stood before him. Esther said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor with him, and if he thinks it is right, and if I am pleasing to him, let there be a decree that reverses the orders of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, who ordered that Jews throughout all the king’s provinces should be destroyed.”

‭‭Esther‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Once, while in Nazareth, Jesus went into the synagogue and was chosen to do the scripture reading. After being handed the scroll of Isaiah, He scanned it to find the part He wanted to read:

““The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah), Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy), to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬-‭19 ‭AMP‬‬

He then scandalized some of the people by doing this:

“Then He rolled up the scroll [having stopped in the middle of the verse], gave it back to the attendant and sat down [to teach]; and the eyes of all those in the synagogue were [attentively] fixed on Him. He began speaking to them: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.””

Luke 4:20-21 AMP

The people took offense to His ascribing the fulfillment of this prophetic word to Himself as it clearly spoke of the Messiah.

Indeed, we know that the Lord had promised a time of favor, a time when we could approach God without fear. Jesus was the fulfillment of that promise.

“For He says, “At the acceptable time (the time of grace) I listened to you, And I helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭2‬ ‭AMP‬‬

Through the blood of Jesus Christ we are adopted as sons and are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that we need no longer fear God‘s judgment.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading again to fear [of God’s judgment], but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons [the Spirit producing sonship] by which we [joyfully] cry, “Abba! Father!””

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭15‬ AMP

As sons of God we can boldly approach the throne formerly reserved for our judgment. And, not only can we approach His throne, we can ask for help, assured He will give it.

“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Unlike other religions, we do not have to wonder whether or not we will find favor in the eyes of God. We know that through Jesus Christ our standing in God‘s favor is secured.

In our opening scripture we see that Esther—in seeking the king’s help again—prefaces her request by saying, “If I have found favor.” Praise be to the Lord, as we approach our King we don’t have to preface our request with that caveat; we know that we have found favor. And, dear child of God, nothing is better than that!

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!

#yearofrealization