Day 28: Favour with God and Men

I promised to give you an example from my own life of how I have seen God blessing the person who is faithful in the workplace, when he is not afraid of being straightforward about being a Christian.

In World War II, I was a soldier in the British Army. After I had been in the Army less than a year, I experienced a very wonderful conversion to Jesus Christ. My whole life was instantly, radically and permanently changed. My fellow soldiers just couldn't understand the change they saw in me. At first, they would say, "He has become religious," and I would correct them and say, "No, it is not religion; I have been saved." But they didn't understand that and they disliked it. However, God gave me grace to lead the kind of life that was consistent with what I was saying about my experience.

After a while, I began to earn their respect. One thing that I discovered was never to compromise about your faith at the beginning of a new situation. For instance, if I was moved into a new barrack room, the first night I would deliberately kneel down by my bed and say my prayers. Not because I think it is essential to pray kneeling down, but just because I wanted to let everybody in that barrack room know where I stood. And though there was a kind of coolness at first and hesitation, I found in the end that those men respected me.

And later on, when we were in situations of danger in the North African desert, at one time our company was cut off behind the enemy lines (which is something that easily happens in desert warfare), some of those ungodly blaspheming men came to me privately, and they said, "Corporal Prince, I'm glad you are with us." In other words, they felt I was a kind of insurance policy for them. They knew God was with me, and if God was with me, then it would rub off somehow on them; and, as a matter of fact, remarkably it did. Our company had a remarkable record of safety and protection during the period that I was with them in the desert.

So, there is an example of how serving God the right way can gain you the approval of men, even if they don't want to join you in your faith. This is also stated elsewhere in the Bible. For instance, in Proverbs 3:1-4, God says:

"My son, do not forget My teaching, but keep My commands in your heart… Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man." (NIV)

Favour with God and man is promised if we will walk in obedience to God's commandments.

There are some remarkable examples of people who have proved that in the history of the Bible. Joseph was in jail, but the Scripture says, "God gave him favour in the sight of the chief jailer." Daniel was an exile in Babylon, but it says, "God granted Daniel favour and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials." In other words, no matter where you are, if you walk right with God and please Him, God will give you favour with man.