The audacity of “spiritual favour”, remaining open, & the law of attraction
I’ve dated two people who have mentioned the idea of spiritual favour to me and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
The first guy toyed with the idea of telling me before relenting and telling me that he possesses spiritual favour. He told me about it quietly, even though it was just the two of us, climbing a deserted hill somewhere by the sea in Devon. I couldn’t work out why he said it like this, nor could I understand why he said it at all. Not a bad marriage pitch for when you’ve been dating a while (who wouldn’t want to marry a lucky person)… although, spoiler alert, we didn’t get married. I never could get my head around this favour thing.
James mentioned spiritual favour to me recently when quite a few things were going right for him. People popping up out of the blue, offering him private medical care, discounts on full-priced items, free drinks. He called it the favour of God.
I feel irked by this idea of favour and of divine favouritism just as I find it tricky that the God of the Bible and even Jesus chose favourites and selected just twelve.
Favour, implies special preference or privilege that gives someone an advantage over others.
I love meritocracy and level playing fields. As a second-generation migrant, in a mostly white circles of friends and as a keen spectator of life growing up in Britain, i’ve seen a lot. It’s no wonder I have a deep aversion to privilege, preferential treatment and unmerited rewards that in many cases haven’t been on my side.
So is there really such a thing as spiritual favour? Is there really preferential treatment by the God of the universe? And if it’s preferential treatment, do I even want it?
Talking to a friend about this, she agreed that favour felt problematic but she recognised that she has experienced an uncanny kind of luckiness that could be likened to favour. But this luckiness has often relied on her own courage, and openness. She’s been offered upgraded theatre tickets on two occasions. She proposed that we could see this as divine favour but how can she ignore the fact that she makes a point of attending the theatre often and thus increases the odds of these things happening. If I had sat at home and had a quiet night in, this would have never happened.
Odds and openness are important factors to consider in the idea of spiritual favour.
It reminds me of the TikTok and social media trends of ‘manifesting’ and ‘lucky girl syndrome’. The idea that if you believe, then you start to become. If I tell myself I am lucky often enough, the universe starts to conspire with me to prove this to be true.
This is not just a latest trend, people have been talking about these ideas as early as the 1800s with the idea of the law of attraction which states that:
Everything in our external world—our bodies, our relationships, the robustness of our careers and our finances—is a direct reflection of our internal state [… the] law of attraction says if you don’t like the quality of the experiences you’re drawing to yourself, you can change them by adjusting your vibrational output, which means shifting your mood, attitude, words, thoughts or perspective.
What we reap, we will sow.
Lucky girl syndrome feels audacious but then again, it feels equally audacious when James asks if the cashier can knock some money off the price of things when there is no sale sign in sight. Worse still, when he asks if there is any movement on the price and we have to endure the awkward confusion and clarification of what he’s actually asking for.
Odds, openness and audacity seem to be the recipe for this kind of spiritual favour.
I think enough people have jumped on this trend and proved that there is at least some truth in the idea, which I don’t doubt. I guess I'm more concerned with the idea of why should it be true?
Reverend Michael Benson Ajayi writes on the topic of favour. He writes:
In the New Testament, ‘favour’ is used interchangeably with the word ‘grace’. It is our insurance policy against failure or defeat in our mission to spread the gospel . It is the covenant right of every believer in Christ however, not all believers in Christ work in divine favour as they ought to. The scriptures say in James NKJV 4:6“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." James 4:10 NKJV “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” It is clear from this scripture that God’s favour is only to be appropriated by those who have passed the test of humility. Humility is like being under an umbrella, while pride is like standing on top of it and yet complaining about not being protected from the rain.
He states that favour isn’t favouritism, it’s being the recipient of grace and of ‘extraordinary goodwill’ due to your humility.
Perhaps then, there’s something in manifesting, praying bold prayers and James asking for audacious requests for extraordinary goodwill from innocent cashiers, that is an act of humility that God himself honours. And as for my self-consciousness and my fear of being mocked, it would seem as if this is pride and self protection which don’t seem to be mentioned in the recipe book for God’s favour.
In secular terms: the universe favours the humble, brave people.
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I have a bad habit of testing God. I want to believe that he does miracles not just for others but in my life too, and so I have a terrible habit of making things worse for myself so that God can defy the odds. It’s laying out the plot line, setting the stage… and then lying in wait for a miracle.
But annoyingly, God has always required faith first. It’s faith as a stance, a heart-position and an audacious act.
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
God’s grace and favour is a thing that is given freely to all of us. It’s a free opportunity to enter into impossibility and receive extraordinary goodwill…
…but I think we play a role in receiving it. It requires our softness, our openness, our death-to-pride and the audacious humility of asking to be on the water with Jesus himself.
Sources
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/good-life-devotional-principles-living-divine-favour-ajayi/
https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/what-is-law-of-attraction-loa/
