Faith In The City

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." Mark 12:30. I have heard this verse repeated more times than I can count, and I would guess a lot of you have too. It gets quoted so often it almost becomes background noise. But repetition was never really my issue with it. My question was always the same one. What does that actually mean? What does it look like in a person's everyday life? Considering how much God brings up love throughout scripture, I started thinking through what loving Him with everything actually requires. It means reading His word. It means being in conversation with Him through prayer. It means worshiping Him. It means cultivating an actual relationship with Him, the same way I would with anyone else I love. The very next verse, Mark 12:31, gives the second half of what Jesus called the greatest commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. Those two were never meant to live apart from each other. Loving God with everything you have was always connected to how you treat the people around you. So loving God also means loving His people the way He loves us. That means being generous with them. Giving them grace and mercy. Extending forgiveness. Being selfless, even when it costs you something. What it doesn't mean is being perfect or completing a checklist. Our grace, our mercy, our forgiveness were never meant to be based on our own performance. He is not giving us an annual performance review. I still have not figured out why those even work the way they do in the first place. Someone shows up right behind you, watches for a little while, and it basically comes down to whatever they decide to say. That is not how His grace works. Praise be to God for that. If you have spent any time waiting to earn what He already freely gave you, this is your reminder. His love does not run on a scorecard. It renews every single day, whether you had a good day or a hard one. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I have started reading the Bible all the way through more times than I can count. Most of those attempts stopped somewhere in Genesis. So when I tell you I have read this part before and never seen it the way I am seeing it now, that is saying something. Adam and Eve ate the fruit they were told not to eat. The moment they did, they knew they were naked, and they hid. God comes looking for them and asks how they knew they were naked in the first place. They were hiding to cover themselves, which if you think about it, is the opposite of what we should do when we mess up. Hiding feels natural. Running toward God does not. But running toward him is what he is actually asking for. Here is the part that got me. God does not judge them for it. He does not chastise them or tell them how wrong they were. He asks one question, and then he makes coverings for them. The word for what he made is kethonet. Royal robes. He could have given them something basic. They had nothing to offer, no skill to make a covering themselves. They had been walking around enjoying the garden, not preparing for this. God did not make them earn it or figure it out. He gave them his best while they were standing there in the aftermath of their biggest mistake. That is what real love looks like. Not overlooking the sin. Responding to it with patience, abundance, and kindness instead of condemnation. This is exactly what 1 John 1:9 is telling us. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Faithful. Not occasionally generous. Faithful, every time we come to him honest about what we have done. He knew we would sin before we ever did. That is why he sent his son. Christ took the weight so we would not have to carry shame or guilt as a permanent address. We are free. And that freedom is not a free pass to keep doing the same thing. It is supposed to push us to live different, to walk in who he made us to be, knowing we are forgiven and chasing righteousness anyway. So if there is something in your head telling you that you are too far gone, that you have messed up too many times, that is not God talking. Let it go. Lean into him. Let him purify you from it. He already made your covering. He made it royal, not because you earned it, but because that is who he is. Take a minute today. Whatever it is you are carrying, forgive yourself for it. Ask God to forgive you. Forgive the people who wronged you too, because we cannot ask for grace we are not willing to extend. Then thank him. Thank him for the forgiveness, for making you his child, for the freedom you already have. Ask him for the courage to actually walk in it. Peace, Love and Joy always,Tanya / InfiniteFaithandFavor.com #InfiniteFaithandFavor #ComeAsYouAre #GraceNotGrind #ChristianWomen #FaithInAction