A Story of Favour

Let me share a story of favour with you.

When my son Jordan was eight years old, I took him to a function where an AFL player from Collingwood (our team) was going to be. There was a competition where you could buy raffle tickets, and the prize was a dinner for you and three other people at a high-end restaurant with three of the club’s top football players.

Jordan really wanted to win and asked if I would buy some tickets. The entries were five dollars each, and they were encouraging people to buy a lot. Many people were buying 10, 20, even 50 tickets. Some were buying 100.

The money was going to charity. Jordan asked how many we could buy, but things were a bit tight at the time, so I said, “I can buy one ticket.”

He turned around to me and said, “Mum, we only need one ticket because Brother Jerry said we have the favour of God.”

I remember thinking—wow.

The man selling the tickets said, “You’re never going to win with one ticket. Most people are buying twenty or more.”
I replied, “I’m sorry, we can’t.”

As we were walking away, I asked Jordan if he’d heard what the man said about other people buying heaps of tickets. He said, “Mummy, it doesn’t matter—we have the favour of God. We only need one ticket.”

We left the event, and as we were driving home, Jordan began to ask who he should take when he won. He said, “I need to pick three people that I want to take with me when I win.” Then he asked, “What do you think I should wear? Do you think the players will dress up?” He was so convinced we were going to win because of the teaching he’d grown up hearing on the favour of God.

Now, here’s me being very real and honest with you. I remember starting to say, “Please don’t get your hopes up,” but the Holy Spirit stopped me and said, “What are you doing? Do not try to downsize your child’s faith—just keep your mouth shut.”
So I stayed quiet. Inside, I was thinking, I just don’t want him to be hurt, but I knew I needed to have the same expectation that he had.

When we got home, Jordan talked about it like it was a done thing. All the while, I was thinking, What if he doesn’t win? But I stayed silent and just kept declaring with him, “He has the favour of God.”

Fast forward about two weeks. The competition had finished, and I was sitting in church one Sunday morning when my phone rang. I didn’t know the number, but after church I checked the voicemail. It said, “It’s Darren Jolly here from the Collingwood Football Club. I just wanted to let Jordan know he’s won the dinner with me and two other players, and I’d like to organise the details.”

I was so excited—I felt like doing cartwheels! Jordan wasn’t there at the time; he’d gone out with friends after church. So I called him and said, “Guess what? I just got a call from Darren Jolly—you won!”
He was thrilled, but not the least bit surprised. He simply said, “Brother Jerry has taught me about the favour of God!”

And the four of us had the most amazing dinner at the fanciest steak restaurant with some of Australia’s top football players—all because my eight-year-old had faith to believe in the favour of God.

Not only is that story an amazing example of God’s favour, it’s also a challenge:
Be a Jordan, not a Christine.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I was comparing our chances with everyone else who was buying dozens of tickets. I was thinking of all the reasons it wouldn’t happen.
Jordan got his hopes up because he knew he had God’s favour. He knew that the favour of God “produces recognition, even when I seem the least likely to receive it.”

So stop looking at the circumstances, the odds, or the impossibilities—just look at God’s favour!