Psalm 67:1 God, be gracious to us

Nineteen times in the book of Psalms, somebody prays that God would be gracious to him.  Grace means favor, so he is praying that he would find or have favor with God.

Who wouldn’t want favor with God?

Actually we already do have favor with God.

Romans 5:1,2  ¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained access [by faith] into this grace in which we have come to stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Focus more on verse two here.

Through Jesus we have obtained access into this grace, or favor, in which we have come to stand.  The word ‘stand’ is in the perfect tense in Greek, which emphasizes the present condition of a past event.  We have come to stand in the favor of God.  We are there, and that’s where we’re staying.

This isn’t dependent on what we do, will do, or have done in the past.  Our relationship with Jesus brings us into favor with God.  Or I should say, or faith in Jesus.  It is not something that varies from day to day depending on what’s going on in our lives.

We don’t need to keep praying like in the psalms for God to be gracious to us.  He has, and He is. 

Think about your kids and your grandkids.  I often refer to this, because I see the importance of this in understanding God.  God created life such that we learn what it is like both to have parents and to be parents.  Some people get poor examples of this or none at all.  I get that, and that’s sad and unfortunate.  But that is still the best way humans can understand what it means to be children of God and knowing His love and favor apart from a personal experience with God, which some people do get but very few.

Believing in Jesus is not just having God forgive our sins, but we become children of God just like children are born to us. 

I suspect too many of us are living under a model of God sitting on His throne, and we bring our requests to Him asking for help and stuff.  Some He grants, and some He doesn’t.  Meanwhile, in our daily lives, it’s one constant trial after another where we never know what to expect, because God has to keep testing us until the day we die.

I realized some time ago that I wasn’t excited about God.  Oh, I am and have always been quite aware of who God is, His awesomeness and His worthiness.  But I certainly didn’t see myself like David dancing before the Lord with all his might. (II Samuel 6:14)

But I’m starting to.  The sad thing is that I have been a Christian for a very long time.  But I am still learning, and I hope these articles help you learn some things too.