Misty Edwards, a full time worship leader at the International House of Prayer-KC, wrote a song called, "Favorite One."
Jesus, here I am your favorite one, what are You thinking, what are You feeling, I have to know. For I am after Your heart, I'm after You, and I'll crown You with my love.
It's a lovely worship song depicting the confidence of a loved believer. One who is confident in God's love for the individual as well as the corporate Church, the Bride of Christ.
This song caused some controversy at the ACFW conference the last two years. It was not my intent to cause a stir, I just want us to see ourselves as loved and FAVORED.
We are highly favored. Why? Because Jesus is highly favored and we are hidden in Him. When God the Father looks at me, He first sees the blood and cleansing of His Son, Jesus. I'm redeemed.
He wants us to see ourselves as sinners redeemed. The Beloved. The Favored Ones. Imagine your kids coming to you every day saying, "Dad, Mom, I know I'm a bad kid and I think wrong things and I can't keep my room clean, I'm so unworthy of your love, food, clothing and home."
How would that make you feel as a parent? How can your child not see and understand and delight in your love? Sure he makes mistakes and requires discipline. Sure he needs to repent and make things right, but he should never consider himself unworthy of your love and provision.
We are the Bride of Christ, not the Concubine of Christ. He wants to dialog with us, share His heart, partner with us to accomplish His kingdom purposes on earth. Concubines have NO voice or authority, no rights. A bride or a wife has rights and priviledge.
Yet, when we see how loved and favored we are, the desire to empty ourselves and live for Him alone overwhelmes us. What does it matter what I want? What do you want? I love you, Jesus!
What is prayer after all? Asking God to go to work for us! He becomes the Servant God. So why then can we not be His favorite one?
We can give Him a laundry list, but not engage Him in confidence and favor? Doesn't jive.
So, here's the Favorite One Challenge. For the month of November, wake up saying, "Jesus, here I am Your favorite one." Add to it, "God likes me and I look good to Him."
Repeat it throughout the day, six, seven, eight times. Take a moment to meditate on what you are saying. Hear Him respond!
Do a scripture search on "delight," "love," or "beloved." Study the Psalms or Song of Solomon as God's message of love to the individual believer.
See what God won't do to your emotional chemistry after proclaiming and believing His immense love and favor toward you.
Are you brave enough to take the Favorite One Challenge?
This post made me smile and brought tears to my eyes. This is the song that most clicked with me at conference. It made me step back and see how God sees me. He loves me and He finds delight in me. And I thrived in that understanding. My God loves me. Wow.
ReplyDeleteBeing caught up in a legalistic view of the church for sooo long, this was refreshing and helped me to lose some of those shackles.
What peace I found in that one song. Overall, I'm pretty sure the 2007 conference wasn't as much about my writing this year as getting myself right with God and allowing Him to use me as He sees fit for whatever purpose that may be. Be it published or unpublished. Feeling like His favorite one...just icing on the cake. :) Thanks, Rachel!
Oh, Rachel, it is hard for me to back down from a challenge, but this one is particularly difficult for me! I can't remember ever being anyone's "favorite one," much less thinking I was God's fav.
ReplyDeleteI will try it,and see what happens. I have faced many things, but this is a toughie for me.
Rachel, I love your Favorite One Challenge. I will do it. Your post spoke straight to my heart, as I had a day of struggle yesterday writing my WIP--or I should say, "trying to."
ReplyDeleteR: "...wasn't as much about my writing...as getting myself right with God and allowing Him to use me as He sees fit for whatever purpose that may be."
K: I feel like I've been in that place for a long time. I'm ready, God, I keep thinking. But above everything else, I want Him. I want to always be a God chaser.
Thanks for a wonderful post that has set the tone for my day.
I just saw that Sabrina made that comment I quoted, about "allowing Him to use me as He sees fit," not Rachel. Anyway, it's a good one. All of this resonated with my heart's cry, to put Him first above everything. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteCrystal, you can do it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all who are taking the challenge - Sabrina and Kristy.
Rachel :)
I would also like to join in the challenge. When I first started in Overeaters Anonymous, this was the one thing that I had the most trouble with... not feeling worthy of His love. Oh, today I am so thankful for that love!! I hope others will join in and take the plunge. We are worthy!!
ReplyDeleteHugs...Cindy
Rachel when I heard this song the other day w/Kendall the words struck me - my first reaction was "what presumption" and then I said yes I am a favored one. Thanks for this post, you are my inspiration.
ReplyDeleteLove Mom
I have no problems believing that God loves me and that I am his blessed child. I've not grown up with "a mad, sad God image", but an image of an approachable God who I can tell anything to and not have to worry about Him getting mad at me.
ReplyDeleteAs one of the people who was deeply offended by the song, my specific complaint is that we have NO RIGHT to demand of God that He tell us what He's thinking. He himself tells us that we can never understand why He does things or what He thinks. What right do we have to stand there and tell Him that he has to tell us what He's thinking? We have no right whatsoever to make such a statement after being told repeatedly in the Bible that we won't understand.
It may not have been written in a demanding way, but that is certainly the way that it comes across with the tone and the beat of the music.
God does not have to explain Himself to anyone. When that song is sung, from my perspective, the people singing are demanding that he explain Himself. I know I'm not the only person with this opinion, so maybe you ought to try and evaluate it from our side of the issue. When controversy surrounds something, it needs to be very closely evaluated from ALL angles. Not just from the angle of the people who like the song.
Enough people have been offended by this song that it's time to take a good, HARD look at it and ask if it's really a good decision to continue to sing the song at conference. If I make it next year, and this song is sung, I will get up and leave the room. I did not enter the ballroom Sunday morning until after the worship session was over because I refused to listen to that song one more time. From the emptiness of the room (even taking into account how many people had early flights and had already left), it leads me to believe I was not in the minority in my feelings.
I will never be one of the people who raves about how awesome ACFW worship. Not if it continues to be exactly the way it was in Dallas. I was sorely disappointed in it as a whole, and got absolutely nothing out of it. My only God moment the entire conference was winning my door prize. I never had the sense that He was present during worship.
We have such a diverse membership that more of an effort needs to be made to accommodate all types of worship. There are still plenty of people in the world who have their deepest worship experience through hymns and responsive readings instead of the same handful of repetitive melodies over and over and over. I'm one of them. And I'm not the only one.
We're big enough that we can't cater to everyone, I know that. But more of an effort to put some variety into the worship can certainly be made. It would be a good change and I do think the number of complaints would go down. As writers, we thrive on making things DIFFERENT, putting that new twist on an old plot, doing something fresh. The same should hold true for our worship if we hope to keep ourselves built up and going strong. The cliche "Variety is the spice of life" is very true. Taking variety out of anything makes life dull and boring. Which is precisely what ACFW conference worship was for me.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honestly about worship.
Blessings, Rachel
There's always going to be hoopla when what we think and hold dear are challenged.
ReplyDeleteI'm told I'm made in God's image, beloved by Him and, the biggie...if I was the Only One alive, He would still have died for me. In my early days I had a lot of trouble truly believing. That's because I was listening to the wrong voice; I wasn't listening, truly, to God's voice. When I started listening to God's voice...the earth tilted, the veil shifted and, moment by moment, I grow more to look like Father.
I haven't a problem with being a Daughter of the King and am liking "Jesus, here I am, Your favorite one. God likes me and I look good to Him."
It's a journey *and* a destination; see you here or see you there. BTW, I'd love to hear the song, it sounds terrific.
Agape & shalom, Sandra
We just sang, "Favorite One" at church last night. We ARE His Bride and a bride would say these things to her bridegroom. May the revelation of His passionate love for us continued to be poured out upon His Bride. Bless you!!!
ReplyDelete