By Jacqueline Overpeck

CBN.com - "We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him." (1 John 4:16-17, TLB)

When you come before the Lord in prayer part of you empties out. That part is filled with the heartaches, hurts, soreness, grief, and agonies you've experienced throughout your life. As you pour the pain in your heart out to God, He refills your inner being or spirit with Himself. God is love (1 John 4:16) and great healing is within Him (Psalm 103:1-5).

It's a trade. You give God your pain, He heals you and refills your heart with His purpose. You lay down your fear, and God fills your heart with faith. You give God your sin, He gives you His sanctification. An exchange takes place.

By Jon Oral Nash

Everyone has an opportunity to walk in favor, and each of us has been in situations where we really needed it. I believe that your understanding of how you can ABOUND IN FAVOR will greatly affect how successful you are in life, and how close you get to fulfilling the divine purpose that God created you to fulfill while you're alive.

In order to understand "favor" you must begin with the word "grace." The New Testament uses the same word to denote "grace" that it does to denote "favor." Thus, these two terms (for the most part) can be used interchangeably. The Greek word for "grace" is the word "charis." It is a very common word in the Greek language, however it's very difficult to express all the different meanings of "grace" in one English word. A good definition for grace is "blessings graciously bestowed."

Grace, or "Charis" denotes a pleasant external appearance, which means if you have it, you look good in the eyes of someone else. We get the word "charisma" from the root word "charis." Charisma is a rare trait found in certain people that enables them to have a magnetic personality that gives them great influence in the world.