You Are God's Favorite - Bravester
Everyone wants to be someone’s favorite. You are God’s favorite.
That sentence hits the ache in your soul and angers you at the same time. You badly want it to be true, but you also don’t believe it.
Somewhere along the way, you absorbed a scarcity story about God: that God’s love must be rationed, divided, or earned; that if someone else is especially loved, there must be less love left for you. You imagine God’s affection like a limited resource, handed out to the most faithful, the most obedient, or the most impressive.
This is certainly not you. Because you know you.
You have come to believe that God is not good. That God’s love has limits. That God is withholding things from you. Scarcity whispers, “God is holding out on you.”
Instead of trusting that God’s heart is abundant and good, we start to believe we must protect ourselves, strive harder, or control outcomes.
This is rooted in scarcity thinking, which is something anti-Bravester, rooted in fear, not trust. Scarcity involves zero-sum thinking which is the belief that one person’s gain is another person’s loss—as if all resources are part of a fixed pie. If someone gets a bigger slice, others must get less. And deep down, your fear is, “I’d better not be the one who ends up with less.”
Here are two great quotes on scarcity which shows the spirit of fear:
“Fear is a strange thing, especially when left to simmer. Untended, fear grows; it doesn’t dissipate, it seethes and metastasizes. It works its way into our bodies, our minds, and eventually our imaginations, until all the world feels fearful. What started as a real wound becomes our vision of the world. We become hyperaware of loss and lack, constantly avoiding, and fighting potential threats. Brene’ Brown calls this ‘scarcity.’ –Jonny Morrison, Prodigal Gospel, p. 74
“We now have an abundance—some might say an overload—of the things we’ve evolved to crave. Thing like food (especially the salty, fatty, sugary variety), possessions (homes filled with online purchases), information (the internet), mood adjusters (drugs and entertainment), and influence (social media). Yet we’re still programmed to think and act as if we don’t have enough. As if we’re still in those ancient times of scarcity. That three-pound bundle of nerves in our skull is always scanning the background, picking up and prioritizing scarcity cues and pushing us to consume more.” –Michael Easter, Our Scarcity Brain, p. 5
The spirit of fear weaves a wicked web. Ending with the lie that we believe we are not God’s favorite, and could never be.
There is enough of God’s love for all of us.
“When fear, shame, and scarcity thinking is leading, ‘grace is enough’ sounds like a platitude. I don’t believe it. I can begin to understand the unlimited pie available to me when I hear, ‘Grace says there is enough.’” –-The Story of Two Lost Sons, p. 35
If you have a transactional relationship with God you believe there are limits.
If you believe God favors someone over you, there are limits.
Do you believe that God tolerates you?
The nature of God’s love is abundance. John 1:16 says, From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. God’s love is not something he divides—it’s something he is. 1 John 4:8 tells us God is love.
God’s love doesn’t get thinner as more people receive it. It multiplies.
Love in God’s economy is not scarcity-based but abundance-based.
Jesus’ miracles show abundance: water into wine, loaves and fish multiplied, bodies made whole. Do you see the consistency? The cross is the ultimate proof that love is not limited—it’s for the whole world. See John 3:16.
The letter writers clearly say that God has no favorites. You can find this in Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25, and 1 Peter 1:17. These verses all mean that God’s love, grace, and salvation are equally available to all. No one is disqualified because of race, gender, background, sin, or status. In Jesus, everyone stands on level ground. Grace says there is enough. This is abundance again.
Because God’s love is infinite—not scarce—he can fully love each person with complete attention, delight, and joy. To you, his love feels personal, as if you were his only one. That’s not favoritism. That’s hesed love. You can be God’s favorite without taking love away from anyone else because his love doesn’t divide—it multiplies.
The word favorite sounds exclusive—like someone else has to lose for you to win. But with God, favoritism doesn’t work that way. His love is personal, not preferential. God is personal towards you. And there is enough.
We each get to live as if we are his favorite because his love is that vast and specific.
God’s favorite is not the one he loves more. It’s the one who knows they’re loved.
God’s favor isn’t about rank, it’s about relationship.
God doesn’t love one child more than another. His love shows up personally to each one.
God’s love is infinite, not divided. God’s heart is big enough for everyone to be his favorite.
In Christ, there is no competition for love—only invitation.
When you live as God’s favorite, you become free to help others see they are too.
Write out one of those sentences on a sticky-note and post that on your mirror. Then add the sticky note, “I am God’s favorite.” There is no hubris in that and it is the right kind of vanity. Live your life from this truth.
p.s. God’s version of favoritism is rooted in hesed love. Lesson Week 2/Day 7 in Trust Issues with God Bible study is a deep dive on this Hebrew word hesed. If you still don’t believe you could possibly be God’s favorite (just like I am!) this Bible study will really help your trust issues.
