If I am to gather favour from God for men, what does that favour look like? It doesn't look like dollars and cents, and it doesn't look like a building. It doesn't even look like a pretty woman. A man who gathers favour from God may deal with such things, but there are many who have such things who do not have the favour of God.
The true blessings from God are the eternal blessings that He lavishes on us by the Holy Spirit through the gift of His Son. These blessings are not achieved by works, however the true works of Christ point to these blessings that are founded on grace. So, let not the works of Christ be in vain, achieving a temporary blessing that is no blessing at all by eternal means.
Gathering favour from God is simply receiving His grace, the grace the enables a man to achieve the true works of the gospel, so that the grace of God can be known throughout the world. This is the true grace of God, that a man is awakened from his slumber, that his works can be counted for eternal glory. What kind of works are these?
In the scriptures, Paul writes, "Each man must remain in the condition in which he was called." The calling of Christ is not being enabled to become a man of religiously defined works, (as Paul was addressing those who named marriage to be among these works,) but to be transformed by the works of grace to enable a man's work to continue to be pruned according to the gospel, so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit would become evident. So, if I am called as a single man, I will remain as a single man, now serving Christ. If I am pruned to bear new fruit as a married man, then I will receive this blessing and remain as a servant of Christ.
All in all, the favour I receive from God is for the saints, men and women alike, that the transforming work of the gospel will bear fruit for all nations. I will remain in the condition in which I was called, because His grace has given me a new opportunity to be a single man who is to receive God's favour to bless men and women who are called of God.
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