How to gain Gods favor?

[dhh712]

Lets give a hypothetical here. Say there are two people up for one job promotion. Both are devout Christians and both pray to God for the same thing namely so they get the new position. How does one gain favor in Gods eyes when praying?

No one gains favor in God's eyes. If you are his child, he loves you and has loved you as 100% as possibly he can from the moment you were conceived. And he will never stop loving you even a fraction less than that.

Your question however seems to intimate that the two devout Christians are praying so that one can gain God's favor over the other and to that one he will give the job promotion to. That's not how God works. He has determined who will get the job promotion from before the foundations of the earth. The prayers of the two Christians will not affect the outcome of who will receive the job promotion. It may have been determined by God at the outset (before time began), however, that by their prayer one of them may get the job promotion. That is why prayer is important: as a means of grace as well as that God may use it as a secondary means to effect something in people's lives.

 

[Cement]

No one gains favor in God's eyes. If you are his child, he loves you and has loved you as 100% as possibly he can from the moment you were conceived. And he will never stop loving you even a fraction less than that.

Your question however seems to intimate that the two devout Christians are praying so that one can gain God's favor over the other and to that one he will give the job promotion to. That's not how God works. He has determined who will get the job promotion from before the foundations of the earth. The prayers of the two Christians will not affect the outcome of who will receive the job promotion. It may have been determined by God at the outset (before time began), however, that by their prayer one of them may get the job promotion. That is why prayer is important: as a means of grace as well as that God may use it as a secondary means to effect something in people's lives.

So what if God preordained that I be the lowest of the lowest? Is that fair?

 

[Strong in Him]

So what if God preordained that I be the lowest of the lowest? Is that fair?

Well personally, I don't believe that God preordains anything.
But if he did, he is just, a God of justice and Creator. He sees, knows, what is best for all of us, and has the right to appoint whom he wishes.

Besides, Scripture says that he always stands up for and protects the lowest of the low - "the first shall be last and the last first", "the meek shall inherit the earth", "God has chosen the foolish of the world," etc.

 

[dhh712]

So what if God preordained that I be the lowest of the lowest? Is that fair?

Sure is. No one of us deserves to be anything better.

 

[Cement]

Sure is. No one of us deserves to be anything better.

Point taken but on the other hand if God gave me everything I wanted would I not love him more because he did so? Borrowing from Luke 7:47

 

[Strong in Him]

Point taken but on the other hand if God gave me everything I wanted would I not love him more because he did so? Borrowing from Luke 7:47

John says that we love because he first loved us, 1 John 4:19.
John and Paul both say that God showed his love by giving his Son to die for sinners, 1 John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8, and Paul also says that God has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ, Ephesians 1:3.

Material possessions, good health, comfort etc should not dictate whether, or how much, we love God, nor be used as evidence of his love for us. He has already shown us how much he loves us by the cross - if we receive Christ and are in him, we, who were sinners, can be adopted as God's children and have all spiritual blessings.