Faith In The City

I told my best friend the other day that God is the plan, not the backup plan. I said it kind of joking, like He is Batman and I am just Robin. But the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I actually needed to hear that myself.Today's verse of the day is Matthew 19:26. Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." It is one of those verses that gets pulled out and used as a blank check. People quote it to mean God can do anything I ask, so I can ask for anything I want.But that is not what Jesus was talking about.The devotional I read this morning, Jesus Does the Impossible, walked through the verses right before this one. A young man came to Jesus and asked what he needed to do to get eternal life. Jesus told him to sell everything he owned and follow Him. The young man walked away sad because he had a lot of stuff and he was not willing to let go of it.That is the context for "with man this is impossible." Jesus was not talking about wish fulfillment. He was talking about salvation. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot work hard enough, be good enough, or hustle hard enough to earn eternal life. Salvation only happens because God made a way through Jesus. It was never something we could achieve on our own strength.That makes me think about myself, because I know exactly what it feels like to try to do something in my own strength that was never meant to be carried alone.The devotional asked me to reflect on what is keeping me from loving Jesus with my whole heart. Is it a relationship. Is it possessions. Is it a mindset. Is it even something as small as a TV show. Is there unforgiveness or bitterness sitting in my heart that I have not dealt with. I read that question and it made me want to dig deeper into my own life more than I expected it to.So I prayed and asked God to keep searching my heart. I asked Him to reveal anything in me that is keeping me from loving Him fully, from surrendering completely to Him. And I am believing that once those things are revealed, I will actually let them go.Here is where the Batman and Robin thing comes back in. I told my friend that God is like Batman and I am the sidekick, Robin. I said it as a joke but it is actually true. We treat God like the backup plan. We grind, we strive, we strategize, and then if none of that works we ask God to step in and fix it. But He was never supposed to be the backup. He is supposed to be the one we go to first.I have people close to me who feel like they have to strive so hard for everything. They grind and plan and force things to happen because they do not feel safe letting God do His part. I understand it because I have done it too. But grace is not grind. Abide is not strive. Somewhere along the way we forgot that we get to let Him cook.So today I am not asking God for something impossible in the way people usually mean it. I am asking Him to search my heart, to show me what I am still holding onto in my own strength, and to help me actually hand it over instead of just saying I did.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.Psalm 103:13 NLTToday is Father's Day, and for the first time I said happy Father's Day to my Heavenly Father. There's a scripture that says He's a father to the fatherless, and that's what makes Him different. If you don't know your earthly father, if the relationship was never what it should have been, if he's passed, or if he just wasn't available to you for whatever reason, you still have a Father. The best Father you could ever have. He does for you everything you'd expect an earthly father to do, but elevated. On a different level.I read a devotional that walked through what fathers do for their kids at every stage. Baby, child, teenager. They provide. They clothe. They feed. They discipline. They comfort. They play, teach, listen, guide, forgive, empower. It pointed to Matthew 7:9-11, where Jesus asks what father would give his child a stone when they ask for bread, or a snake when they ask for fish. If we, as flawed as we are, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to us.Here's where it got me. The devotional said a parent's love for their child can only be compared to God's love for us, and even then, it's a mere shadow. I think about that next to the parable of the mustard seed, where Jesus says even a faith that small can move mountains. As much as I love my son, I believe what I feel for him is the mustard seed next to what God feels for him. My love is the seed. His love is the whole tree.I also want to clear something up while I'm here. Scripture tells us to fear the Lord, and I think that word trips people up. When I read fear, I used to picture being scared, the way you're scared of the dark or scared of getting hurt. That's not it. Fear of the Lord is reverence. It's respect. It's standing in front of something so much bigger than you and finally understanding the size of the room you're in.The devotional closed with something I needed. If you're feeling loss, if you feel like you've messed up, if you're heartbroken or defeated, God wants to meet you exactly where you are. Sometimes that looks like Him leading you toward life. Sometimes it's mercy. Sometimes it's just the reminder that you are still His child, and He is still available to you.It also asked us to pray that God would reveal any untruths or half-truths that have kept us from Him, to help us break down the walls we've built, and to restore the kind of trust we had as children. Simple trust. The kind that doesn't ask questions before it reaches for the hand that's holding it.Peace, Love and Joy always,TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

Matthew 22:36-40. Someone asked Jesus which commandment in the entire law was the greatest, and He did not make them wait for the answer. Love God with everything you are. And love the people around you the same way you love yourself. That is it. That is the whole thing.The Bible keeps coming back to this. John 13:35 says people will know we belong to Jesus by how we love one another. 1 Peter 4:8 says love covers a multitude of sins. Over and over, scripture points us back to the same place.Love is the center of what it means to follow Jesus.And one of the hardest ways to live that out is forgiving people who hurt you. I want to be clear that I am not talking about easy forgiveness, the kind that does not cost you anything. I am talking about the kind where you genuinely feel the weight of what someone did and you choose love anyway. That is where the rubber meets the road.I have struggled with that. I will not pretend I have not. Forgiving people who I feel hurt me has been a real challenge. It is less of a challenge than it used to be, and I give God credit for that, but I am not going to stand here and tell you it has been simple.Here is what I think though. If you nail loving people the way God loves you, I think you are golden.Not because you have perfect church attendance. Not because you can recite chapter and verse. Not because your career is impressive or your family looks right from the outside. God is not keeping score on any of that. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is generous. Love does not judge. And if that is not what is coming out of us, none of the other stuff is going to matter the way we think it does.So today, ask God to show you how He wants you to love the people in your life. Ask Him to fill your heart with a deep love for others. Not a love you manufacture on your own, because that runs out. A love He grows in you.That is the assignment.Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I have been quoting Psalm 23 my whole life. This week I finally looked up what the rod, staff, anointing with oil, and the table in front of your enemies actually mean. It changed everything.