Straight from a Favoured Heart
By Lisa Elliott

Specifically, Straight from a Ridiculously Favoured Heart.

Have you ever experienced “God’s Ridiculous Favour”? By that I mean, a time when God’s sold some of the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10) and poured out His superfluous riches and His and-then-some blessings into your life in a superabundant fashion. And in such a way that there is no denying it’s from His most gracious and generous hand.

An instance I clearly remember was in the sale of one of our homes. My husband and I were in the middle of a ministry transition and planning a much-needed and long-awaited vacation. We were going to be away for a couple of weeks and we’d worked hard to get our home into move-in-ready condition so that we could better enjoy our time away. Our plan was to contact a realtor upon our return.

However, two weeks before our departure, just for the fun of it, we decided to put a For Sale sign on our lawn to see what kind of attention we’d attract. It would sure save on realtor fees and added expense if, by some miraculous act of the Lord, we could sell it on our own. The only challenge was that we’d never sold a house before. Not to mention, it was the middle of winter. Regardless, we decided to go ahead. What could it hurt?

We purchased a For Sale sign and hammered it into our front lawn. Then something remarkably remarkable occurred. As we opened the door to our house, the Lord opened up the skies above—literally! The clouds parted, the snow melted, and the sun shone as if directly over our property. The temperature rose to a ridiculous height, to the degree that we opened up windows and even went as far as to set out all of our lawn and patio furniture!

We were astonished by the immediately ignited interest and had several offers on our house within the week. By the time we left for our vacation, we had replaced the For Sale sign with a Sold sign. And ridiculously enough, as we pulled out of our driveway, winter resumed.

Ridiculous favour? I don’t know how else to describe it! Not unlike those times in the Bible when the Lord has shown up in the nick of time to part a Sea or abundantly feed a multitude with a boy’s lunch, or fill the nets of some desperate fishermen until they were so full they couldn’t contain their catch of the day—or rather, catch of a lifetime!

Whether it’s God opening up the sky to rain showers of blessing or to miraculously part the sea to allow us to walk across on dry ground. The ridiculous thing is that it’s often when we’ve come to the end of our own resources, and, in most cases it’s typically when we haven’t done anything to deserve it.

Isn’t that the point after all? There’s absolutely nothing we could ever do to deserve His grace and favour and yet He chooses to pour it out over us anyway? He’s already given us more than we deserve. “_For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast_” (Eph. 2:8-9). So the fact that He chooses to go over and above what He’s already done for us to bless us beyond measure? Amazing grace!

You can be confident that God will provide all of your needs according to His riches in glory (Phil. 4:19). But be watching for that next unwarranted time when He opens up the heavens and showers you with His blessings. When that happens, make sure that you give Him all the praise and glory for His ridiculous favour.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the LORD’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:16-21).

About this Contributor:

Lisa Elliott is an inspirational speaker and award-winning author of The Ben Ripple and Dancing in the Rain. Additionally, she has written articles for Just Between Us Magazine and devotionals for theStory. She and her pastor-husband, David, have four children (3 on earth, 1 in heaven) and serve the Lord together in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

To book Lisa for a weekend retreat or day conference contact her at: lisakelliott22@gmail.com