The Year of the Lord’s Favor: Living From Restoration, Not Striving Toward It
Pastor Reed Sowell
The start of a new year tends to surface a mix of emotions. Some people lean into the excitement of fresh goals and clean calendars. Others carry fatigue from a hard season and approach optimism with caution. Still others feel somewhere in the middle, hopeful but hesitant. What remains steady beneath all of that is a simple, grounding truth: God sees people fully and cares deeply about their lives, their families, and their inner world. That reality doesn’t remove uncertainty, but it does anchor it. Click the link above for the full message.
This idea of being seen is not sentimental language. Scripture presents it as a stabilizing reality that reshapes how life is interpreted, especially when circumstances feel unpredictable. God’s attention is not distant or abstract. It is personal, attentive, and active. That truth becomes especially meaningful when the year begins imperfectly, marked by disruption, disappointment, or unanswered questions.
At the heart of the Christian story is the conviction that no one walks alone. Life may unfold in ways that are unexpected or even painful, but the presence of God remains constant. The promise is not that every outcome will be easy, but that God’s nearness does not waver. From that place of nearness flows what Scripture describes as the Lord’s favor.
What God’s Favor Actually Means
The word “favor” can be misunderstood, often reduced to external success or circumstantial ease. In Scripture, favor runs much deeper. It is grounded not in human performance but in relationship. God’s favor toward humanity is rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ, not in individual effort or spiritual consistency.
This distinction matters because it reframes how people approach God. Favor is not a reward handed out for good behavior. It is a posture God takes toward His children. As 1 John 3:1 says, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are.” Favor begins with identity, not achievement.
When favor is understood relationally, it changes the tone of faith. God is no longer engaged as a distant authority to be impressed, but as a loving Father who welcomes His children. That doesn’t remove accountability or growth, but it places both within the safety of belonging. Children do not earn their place in a family; they live from it.
This relational favor is steady even on days marked by failure, immaturity, or struggle. It is not revoked when patience runs thin or obedience falters. God’s favor remains because it rests on Christ’s obedience, not human consistency. That truth alone relieves a quiet pressure many people carry.
Jesus and the Announcement of Favor
The language of God’s favor appears throughout Scripture, but it takes on particular clarity in the early moments of Jesus’ public ministry. In Luke 4, Jesus returns to His hometown after being baptized and enduring temptation in the wilderness. He enters the synagogue and reads from the prophet Isaiah.
Luke 4:18–19 records the moment: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free
When Familiarity Breeds Resistance
After Jesus finishes reading from Isaiah, Luke notes that He makes a striking claim: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21, NIV). What should have been received as hopeful news instead produces skepticism. The people listening knew Jesus personally. They remembered His childhood, His family, His trade. Familiarity made it difficult for them to recognize what God was doing right in front of them.
This reaction reveals something deeply human. It is often easier to anticipate God’s work somewhere else than to recognize it in ordinary places or familiar faces. The people of Nazareth struggled not because the message lacked clarity, but because it challenged their expectations. Restoration rarely arrives packaged the way people assume it will.
Jesus’ declaration still stands regardless of the crowd’s response. God’s favor does not depend on human approval or understanding. Even when misunderstood or dismissed, God’s purposes move forward. That truth carries quiet encouragement for anyone who has felt overlooked, underestimated, or reduced to a former version of themselves.
Isaiah’s Hope and Its Fulfillment
The passage Jesus reads comes from Isaiah 61, a prophetic announcement originally spoken to a people living in tension. They had returned from exile in Babylon, but Jerusalem was still in ruins. Life had resumed, but fullness had not yet arrived. Isaiah’s words named both their pain and their hope.
Isaiah spoke of restoration as something coming, something God would do in the future. His language invited people to live expectantly even while rebuilding felt slow and incomplete. Hope, at that stage, was forward-looking and unresolved.
When Jesus reads these words centuries later, He reframes them entirely. What Isaiah announced in anticipation, Jesus announces in fulfillment. Restoration is no longer postponed. It has arrived in a person, not a program or a season.
This shift changes everything. Hope is no longer anchored in what might be, but in who has come. The fulfillment of Isaiah’s promise means that God’s restorative work is no longer distant or symbolic. It is present, active, and personal.
The Meaning Behind the Year of Jubilee
When Jesus proclaims “the year of the Lord’s favor,” He is referencing the Year of Jubilee described in Leviticus 25. Jubilee occurred once every fifty years and functioned as a societal reset. Debts were forgiven, captives released, land returned, and economic imbalances corrected.
Jubilee reminded God’s people that nothing truly belonged to them. Everything was held in trust under God’s authority. It was both a spiritual and practical recalibration of life.
By declaring the year of the Lord’s favor fulfilled, Jesus announces something radical. Jubilee is no longer a temporary event on a calendar. It becomes a permanent reality through Him. Restoration, release, and renewal are no longer limited to a cycle. They are offered continuously.
This reframing reveals God’s heart. Grace is not rationed. Freedom is not delayed. Restoration is not earned. What was once occasional becomes ongoing because it is grounded in Christ Himself.
Restoration as a Defining Reality
Because the year of the Lord’s favor is fulfilled in Jesus, restoration is no longer something people wait for or strive toward. It becomes the defining reality of those who belong to Him. That does not mean life is free from struggle, but it does mean struggle no longer defines identity.
Restoration is woven into salvation, not added afterward. Salvation rescues people from sin and separation from God. Restoration renews and reorders life according to God’s original design and future purpose. The two are inseparable.
This distinction matters because many people receive salvation without allowing restoration to reshape daily life. Faith becomes something believed but not embodied. Over time, that disconnect creates frustration.
Restoration is a process, not a moment. It unfolds gradually as people learn to live from what Christ has already secured. Change happens not through pressure, but through participation with the Holy Spirit.
Living From Approval, Not For It
One of the most common areas in need of restoration is identity. Many people carry a quiet dependence on the approval of others. That dependence shapes behavior, language, and even self-perception.
Over time, prioritizing relationship with Jesus reorients that need. Approval shifts from something pursued externally to something received securely. God’s affirmation becomes steadier than public opinion.
This does not eliminate the desire to be liked. It simply removes its power. Behavior no longer needs to be altered to earn belonging. Authenticity becomes possible because acceptance is already settled.
Restoration in this area does not arrive overnight. It develops as trust deepens and identity anchors more firmly in Christ rather than performance.
Salvation That Reshapes Daily Life
The declaration of the Lord’s favor announces a new reality that reshapes both identity and practice. Jesus does not merely describe what is possible. He establishes what is true.
“Jubilee is no longer a year; it’s a person.” This idea captures the heart of Jesus’ announcement. Freedom is no longer symbolic. God’s restorative reign has begun.
Faith receives this reality before it feels fully experienced. The Holy Spirit then teaches people how to live within it. Growth becomes responsive rather than reactive.
The question is not whether restoration exists, but whether life is being shaped by it.
Good News for the Spiritually Poor
Jesus begins His declaration with good news for the poor. Spiritual poverty refers to an awareness of need. It is the recognition that self-sufficiency falls short.
The gospel speaks directly to this condition. God’s kingdom begins with grace offered to those who know they need it. Spiritual lack does not disqualify anyone from God’s favor. It positions them to receive it.
Belief, not effort, is the response that opens the door. What Christ has already accomplished becomes the foundation for transformation.
Spiritual poverty is not something to hide. It is the place where grace does its deepest work.
Freedom That Precedes Feeling
Jesus proclaims freedom before anyone in the synagogue feels free. That pattern still holds. Freedom begins with belief, not emotion.
Jesus reinforces this truth in John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Freedom is declared as fact, not potential.
Faith lives from this declaration even when internal experience lags behind. This is not denial of reality, but trust in a greater one.
As belief takes root, identity stabilizes. Circumstances lose their authority to define worth or direction.
When Life Feels Spiritually Trapped
Jesus also proclaims freedom for prisoners. This includes every form of captivity: spiritual, emotional, relational, and systemic.
Bondage loses its authority the moment Jesus speaks freedom, even if lived experience takes time to align. Victory is decisive; application is gradual.
Jesus wins freedom fully. The Spirit applies that freedom faithfully over time. Chains may still feel heavy, but they are already broken.
Feeling trapped does not mean abandonment. It often signals disconnection that invites renewed abiding.
Abiding as the Pathway to Freedom
To abide means to remain. Jesus describes this connection in John 15:4: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.”
Freedom is not produced through effort, but sustained through connection. Life flows from proximity, not performance.
Change happens from the inside out as words and actions align with Christ’s life. Drift, even unintentional, can disrupt awareness of freedom.
Re-abiding restores clarity, strength, and perspective.
Recovery of Sight for Blind Spots
Jesus also proclaims recovery of sight for the blind. Spiritual blindness often shows up as resistance to feedback, unresolved offense, or distorted self-perception.
God frequently uses trusted people to reveal blind spots. This can feel uncomfortable, but it is an act of grace.
Blindness can also come from comparison, envy, or exhaustion. Sometimes life’s weight clouds vision rather than overt sin.
Jesus declares illumination even before clarity feels complete.
Learning to See Differently
In Christ, identity changes immediately, even if perception lags behind. Scripture says believers are new creations, not works in progress trying to qualify.
Ephesians 5:8 states, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Identity precedes behavior.
Recovery of sight does not mean every answer becomes clear. It means perspective shifts. Hope becomes possible again.
Living as children of light involves resisting the lie that struggle defines identity.
Freedom for the Oppressed
Oppression is prolonged pressure that diminishes dignity or hope. It can come through systems, relationships, or internalized lies.
Jesus’ declaration confronts oppression directly. What God never placed on people is removed.
Scripture names several common weights:
Condemnation after forgiveness (Romans 8:1)
Shame that denies new identity (Psalm 34:5)
The belief that suffering equals God’s absence (Romans 8:35)
Freedom restores dignity before circumstances fully change.
Relying on the Spirit’s Strength
Scripture consistently attributes freedom to the work of the Holy Spirit. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Walking in freedom is not about trying harder. It is about yielding daily.
The Spirit applies Christ’s finished work moment by moment. Surrender becomes the posture that sustains growth.
Freedom unfolds through trust, not force.
Favor as a Defining Identity
Jesus ends His declaration by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. Favor does not guarantee ease, but it does guarantee God’s nearness.
God’s favor rests on Christ’s obedience, not human perfection. That truth allows people to walk forward with confidence rather than fear.
Life will still carry uncertainty, questions, and moments of weakness. Favor does not remove those realities. It reframes them.
The year of the Lord’s favor is not a season. It is a person who remains present every moment.
Living as If It’s True
Jesus declares good news, freedom, sight, liberty, and favor before anyone earns it or fully experiences it. Faith receives what is already true.
The Spirit forms that truth into lived reality through abiding, identification with Christ, and daily surrender.
Hope endures not because circumstances cooperate, but because God remains faithful.
The question is not whether these words are true, but whether life will be shaped by them.
A Few Ways to Respond
Reflect honestly on areas of spiritual poverty or blindness.
Reconnect through abiding practices that restore awareness of God’s presence.
Release weights that God never placed on you.
Choose daily surrender over self-effort.
Further Reading
The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield – https://www.crossway.org/books/the-gospel-comes-with-a-house-key-tpb/
The Meaning of Jubilee in Scripture (BibleProject) – https://bibleproject.com/articles/jubilee/
Other links
Want to hear more? Check out last week’s message titled, Joy in the Dark on View Church’s YouTube channel.
Explore additional resources and Bible studies at https://www.viewchurch.co/resources