Faith In The City

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

2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."This verse excited me when I read it. I don't recall seeing it before, but I felt that excitement because the spirit lives in me, and if where the spirit lives there is freedom, that's what peace beyond understanding feels like. It feels like freedom. Freedom to surrender and let God take over, knowing I don't have to keep fighting or grinding. The fact that His spirit is in me makes me happy, because I'm where He dwells now. Not in some temple, but within me.I love that the narrator, Clarissa Burton, reminds us that before we get into the word, we believe we can find freedom through worldly things. When you turn your life over to God, you learn that true freedom is in that relationship. It's in allowing access to the Lord in your heart and choosing to follow Him.The devotional, True Freedom Is Here, talks about how many people define freedom differently. For some it's the absence of restraints or the things holding us back. For others it's being allowed to choose what they want. According to God's word, freedom is wherever God is, and freedom is found when we live according to God's original design for our life.I don't know that I've ever heard it described that way before. The original design for our life. So what is that?The devotional explains that when we begin our life with Jesus, He gives us a new heart and a new way to live. He sends the spirit of God to live within us, so anyone who believes in Jesus has access to this freedom, the freedom to live according to the spirit of God who lives within us.Paul reminds us that we should spend time in God's presence. It's only when we sit with God daily that we are transformed by Him, through His word and through talking with Him. That's where we have access to true life, transformation, and true freedom.This is a reminder that real freedom is found in surrender to God's design, in the peace of trusting Him instead of trying to control everything myself. I think about the times in my life when I felt like I had freedom. College, graduating, living on my own as an adult. But in those seasons I never felt the peace beyond understanding the way I feel today, after intentionally seeking a better understanding of what it truly means to be a Christian and to turn my life over to God.Can you identify one or two things holding you back from living in true freedom as defined by the word of God? Whatever it is, spend some time with God today. Ask for forgiveness and seek out your next steps. Spend time in His presence through prayer and reading scripture. Your life will be transformed if you continue to spend time with the One who can thoroughly and truly change you and give you real freedom.Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."This verse excited me when I read it. I don't recall seeing it before, but I felt that excitement because the spirit lives in me, and if where the spirit lives there is freedom, that's what peace beyond understanding feels like. It feels like freedom. Freedom to surrender and let God take over, knowing I don't have to keep fighting or grinding. The fact that His spirit is in me makes me happy, because I'm where He dwells now. Not in some temple, but within me.I love that the narrator, Clarissa Burton, reminds us that before we get into the word, we believe we can find freedom through worldly things. When you turn your life over to God, you learn that true freedom is in that relationship. It's in allowing access to the Lord in your heart and choosing to follow Him.The devotional, True Freedom Is Here, talks about how many people define freedom differently. For some it's the absence of restraints or the things holding us back. For others it's being allowed to choose what they want. According to God's word, freedom is wherever God is, and freedom is found when we live according to God's original design for our life.I don't know that I've ever heard it described that way before. The original design for our life. So what is that?The devotional explains that when we begin our life with Jesus, He gives us a new heart and a new way to live. He sends the spirit of God to live within us, so anyone who believes in Jesus has access to this freedom, the freedom to live according to the spirit of God who lives within us.Paul reminds us that we should spend time in God's presence. It's only when we sit with God daily that we are transformed by Him, through His word and through talking with Him. That's where we have access to true life, transformation, and true freedom.This is a reminder that real freedom is found in surrender to God's design, in the peace of trusting Him instead of trying to control everything myself. I think about the times in my life when I felt like I had freedom. College, graduating, living on my own as an adult. But in those seasons I never felt the peace beyond understanding the way I feel today, after intentionally seeking a better understanding of what it truly means to be a Christian and to turn my life over to God.Can you identify one or two things holding you back from living in true freedom as defined by the word of God? Whatever it is, spend some time with God today. Ask for forgiveness and seek out your next steps. Spend time in His presence through prayer and reading scripture. Your life will be transformed if you continue to spend time with the One who can thoroughly and truly change you and give you real freedom.Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I am on day 168 of the Bible Recap with Tara-Leigh Cobble, reading through Proverbs 25 and 26 today, and one thing caught my attention.Proverbs 26:27 says that whoever digs a pit for someone else ends up falling into it themselves, and whoever rolls a stone to hurt someone else will have it roll back on them. Psalm 7:15-16 says nearly the same thing a different way. The trouble a person tries to set up for someone else becomes the trouble that lands on them.I could not have quoted either verse before today, but I have heard story after story of this same pattern showing up in real life. Someone sets out to hurt another person, and somehow it circles back on them instead. Today's reading gave me the actual words for something I already believed.The Hebrew word for pit in that verse is shuchah. It described the kind of trap a hunter would dig and cover so an animal would fall in without seeing it coming. That picture matters here. Whatever someone is digging to catch you in, they are the one who eventually falls into it.This makes me think about everything happening in our world right now. It can feel like some people believe the rules do not apply to them. But we were all created by the same God, and we all answer to the same standard. Anything someone is trying to do to you today is them digging their own ditch, not yours.We are still called to fight for justice. Micah 6:8 tells us to act justly, and that calling does not disappear just because we trust God with the outcome. We can stand for what is right and pursue it through legal, peaceful channels rather than trying to force someone into doing the right thing. The same goes for faith. 1 Peter 3:15-16 tells us to answer people with gentleness and respect, not pressure, whether the conversation is about justice or someone coming to know God. Romans 12:19 covers the rest of it. Vengeance belongs to God, not us.Here is something else I keep coming back to. Anyone trying to take your voice, your spirit, your independence, your energy, your love, your success, or your ability to flourish is dealing with something inside themselves first. A person full of joy wants other people to experience that same joy. They want others to feel the peace that goes beyond understanding and to flourish in life too.That actually makes me feel for the people who do this. They have life. Sometimes they even have power and influence. Instead of using any of it for good, they choose to oppress, suppress, belittle, victimize, or judge. That choice will affect them, and it can affect the generations that come after them. It looks like a lack of self-love to me. Who does that to themselves on purpose?Some of the people who do this carry the name Christian too. I will leave that there for today.If you are feeling concerned about what is ahead of you, I want you to have peace about it. Anything someone is trying to do to you right now cannot succeed the way they think it will. They are setting their own trap, not yours. You do not have to carry the weight of fixing it or proving anything to anyone. God already sees what you cannot see yet, and He is on your side.That is the peace I want for you today. Let God handle the ditch. Your job is to stay faithful, stay joyful, and keep flourishing anyway.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

If you don't know where to start, start with love. That line has been on repeat in my head since this morning. A lot of us stand at the edge of faith wondering what we're supposed to do first, worried about getting it wrong, worried about some checklist we don't even know exists. The truth is simpler than all of that. My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12. Jesus said a lot of things that carry weight, but this is the one that sums up everything else. If you're not sure where to begin, begin here. So what does loving the way he loved actually look like? I read something this morning called Love Compelled Him, and it broke it down in a way that finally made it click for me. Love compelled Jesus to give up his privileges. He could have done whatever he wanted with his power and his position. Instead he set his rights aside so we could be made right with God. Love compelled Jesus to prioritize people. The woman at the well. The man with leprosy. A Roman officer. A blind beggar. Peter's mother in law. A widow's son. A tax collector everyone else despised. The thief hanging next to him on the cross. He saw people instead of problems, every single time, no exceptions. Love compelled Jesus to serve. He washed his disciples' feet himself. He went after the people everyone else had given up on. He had compassion for the sick and the broken, and in the end he gave his own life for it. Love compelled Jesus to hold truth and grace together. He never picked one over the other. He was serious about God's word and just as serious about showing compassion to the people who needed it most. Here's where I had to think about it for myself for a minute. If love means prioritizing people, where does that leave me? Am I supposed to put everyone else first and forget myself in the process? The answer I came to is different than that. Jesus prioritized people, and he also walked away to pray by himself. He rested. He set boundaries when he needed to. Loving people well was never about emptying yourself out until there's nothing left to give. It's about loving yourself the right way so you actually have something real to offer. It's not you against everyone else competing for the same love. It never was that. So if you're wondering how to start, you don't need a theology degree and you don't need to have it all figured out first. Start with how you're loving the people in front of you right now. Are you patient with them. Are you kind. Are you generous and humble even when it's hard to be. Put yourself on that list too, because you matter just as much as the people you're trying to love well. This is the prayer I'm carrying today, and maybe it's yours too. Holy Spirit, thank you for helping me live this out. I want to prioritize others, serve the people around me, and share the love of Jesus with the people who need it first. That's the whole starting point. Love serves. Love gives grace. Love tells the truth. Start there, and let everything else build from it. Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

If you don't know where to start, start with love.That line has been on repeat in my head since this morning. A lot of us stand at the edge of faith wondering what we're supposed to do first, worried about getting it wrong, worried about some checklist we don't even know exists. The truth is simpler than all of that.My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12. Jesus said a lot of things that carry weight, but this is the one that sums up everything else. If you're not sure where to begin, begin here.So what does loving the way he loved actually look like? I read something this morning called Love Compelled Him, and it broke it down in a way that finally made it click for me.Love compelled Jesus to give up his privileges. He could have done whatever he wanted with his power and his position. Instead he set his rights aside so we could be made right with God.Love compelled Jesus to prioritize people. The woman at the well. The man with leprosy. A Roman officer. A blind beggar. Peter's mother in law. A widow's son. A tax collector everyone else despised. The thief hanging next to him on the cross. He saw people instead of problems, every single time, no exceptions.Love compelled Jesus to serve. He washed his disciples' feet himself. He went after the people everyone else had given up on. He had compassion for the sick and the broken, and in the end he gave his own life for it.Love compelled Jesus to hold truth and grace together. He never picked one over the other. He was serious about God's word and just as serious about showing compassion to the people who needed it most.Here's where I had to think about it for myself for a minute. If love means prioritizing people, where does that leave me? Am I supposed to put everyone else first and forget myself in the process?The answer I came to is different than that. Jesus prioritized people, and he also walked away to pray by himself. He rested. He set boundaries when he needed to. Loving people well was never about emptying yourself out until there's nothing left to give. It's about loving yourself the right way so you actually have something real to offer. It's not you against everyone else competing for the same love. It never was that.So if you're wondering how to start, you don't need a theology degree and you don't need to have it all figured out first. Start with how you're loving the people in front of you right now. Are you patient with them. Are you kind. Are you generous and humble even when it's hard to be. Put yourself on that list too, because you matter just as much as the people you're trying to love well.This is the prayer I'm carrying today, and maybe it's yours too.Holy Spirit, thank you for helping me live this out. I want to prioritize others, serve the people around me, and share the love of Jesus with the people who need it first.That's the whole starting point. Love serves. Love gives grace. Love tells the truth. Start there, and let everything else build from it.Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I have been thinking about this for a few days and I could not shake it.When someone asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest, He did not hesitate. Love God with everything you have. And then love the people around you the same way you love yourself. He said the entire law, everything else in scripture, hangs on those two things.That is Matthew 22:36-40. And the more I think about it, the more I think we have made the faith life so complicated that we have buried the main thing.I have met people who know the Bible front to back. People who can quote chapter and verse, who have been in church their whole lives, who have perfect attendance on their spiritual resume. And some of those same people are the hardest people to be around. Not because they are bad people. But because they were so focused on the knowledge that they skipped the part where you actually love people.Jesus said something in John 13:35 that gets me every time I read it. He said people will know you belong to Him by how you love one another. Not by what you know. Not by how long you pray. Not by how many conferences you attend. By how you love.That is the test. That is the whole thing.And listen, I have failed that test. More than once. I have held onto things. I have been short with people I love. I have found it genuinely hard to extend grace to people who I feel wronged me, and some of those feelings are not small.Peter says in 1 Peter 4:8 that love covers a multitude of sins. The word he uses in the original Greek is ektenes. It means stretched out, strained. Like a muscle working hard to reach something. That word tells me love is not supposed to be passive. It is not a feeling you stumble into. It is a choice you make, and sometimes it is a hard one.Forgiveness is one of the hardest expressions of that love. I know this personally. I have had to forgive people who I am not sure deserve it by any human standard. What I have learned is that forgiveness is not about them. It is about keeping my heart soft enough that God can still reach me. Bitterness closes a door that I want to stay open.Here is what I want to say plainly: God does not lead with a checklist. He leads with love. And He asks us to do the same.That does not mean none of the other things matter. Knowing scripture matters. Being in community matters. Prayer matters. But if none of those things are producing love in you, something is off. The fruit of all of it is supposed to be love.Today I want to ask you to do one thing. Ask God to show you how He wants you to love the people in your life, and then ask Him to grow that capacity in you. Not because you can manufacture it on your own. But because He can, and He will, if you let Him.And if you are struggling to forgive someone right now, I see you. I have been there. The wrestling is not failure. The wrestling means you still care about getting it right.That is faith in motion.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

Romans 8:31 is one of those scriptures that almost everyone has seen at least once. On a church wall, a phone case, a motivational graphic somewhere. But when you actually read it, and I mean really read it, it does not feel like decor. It feels like a battle cry."What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"That is a dare. That is someone writing with their chest out. And when I came across it recently, something in me stood up straight.Here is what Paul was actually doing when he wrote this. He was writing to believers in Rome who were not living comfortable lives. They knew trouble. Real trouble. And into that trouble, Paul asks this question not to minimize what they were going through, but to reframe what it meant.The existence of trouble does not cancel God's promise. That is the whole point.When you are in the middle of a long season and it has been hard and slow and quiet, it is very easy to wonder: Is He still here? Is He still working? Am I still on the right track? I have been there. More recently than I am always comfortable admitting. Within the last 30 days I was asking God for a sign. Asking Him to let me know something. And this scripture came right on time.The verse is not promising a life without opposition. It is promising that nothing that comes against you can win.There is a picture in the devotional that I keep thinking about. Imagine a bully twice your size is harassing you. Fear makes sense. But now imagine your best friend is standing next to you, and your friend is twice as big as the bully. The dynamic changes instantly. The bully is the one who should be afraid now.That is the position you are in when God is for you. He is the Creator, which means He made everything. He is the Sustainer, which means He is actively holding everything together right now. And He is on your side. Why would you pick a fight you cannot win? Why would anyone?Now, I want to address something because I was thinking about it. Does this mean everyone gets to walk in this kind of confidence?I believe the victory is most fully experienced when you are aligned with Him. Not checklist-aligned. Not performance-based. Heart-aligned. When you are genuinely walking in love, when your intentions are not to oppress or harm or manipulate, when your heart is toward Him, that is when this promise becomes your daily reality. I think people who spend their time being oppressors or judgmental without accountability are not walking in this same kind of victory, and I say that with grace rather than judgment, because God can reach anyone. But the promise of Romans 8:31 is most alive in the person who has said yes to Him.And for those who have trusted Jesus, the bottom line is this: someone who is bigger, greater, and more powerful than anything you will ever face is standing with you. He has already defeated the worst thing that could happen, which is separation from God, on the cross. If He handled that, He can handle what is in front of you.Your soul is untouchable. Your standing is secure. Whatever wrong has been done to you can be left in His hands, because He is both your defender and your Father.So when the morning feels heavy and the breakthrough feels far away, read this verse like it is your armor. Because it is.If God is for us, who can be against us? The answer is no one that matters.Peace, Love and Joy alwaysInfinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

Romans 8:31 is one of those scriptures that almost everyone has seen at least once. On a church wall, a phone case, a motivational graphic somewhere. But when you actually read it, and I mean really read it, it does not feel like decor. It feels like a battle cry."What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"That is a dare. That is someone writing with their chest out. And when I came across it recently, something in me stood up straight.Here is what Paul was actually doing when he wrote this. He was writing to believers in Rome who were not living comfortable lives. They knew trouble. Real trouble. And into that trouble, Paul asks this question not to minimize what they were going through, but to reframe what it meant.The existence of trouble does not cancel God's promise. That is the whole point.When you are in the middle of a long season and it has been hard and slow and quiet, it is very easy to wonder: Is He still here? Is He still working? Am I still on the right track? I have been there. More recently than I am always comfortable admitting. Within the last 30 days I was asking God for a sign. Asking Him to let me know something. And this scripture came right on time.The verse is not promising a life without opposition. It is promising that nothing that comes against you can win.There is a picture in the devotional that I keep thinking about. Imagine a bully twice your size is harassing you. Fear makes sense. But now imagine your best friend is standing next to you, and your friend is twice as big as the bully. The dynamic changes instantly. The bully is the one who should be afraid now.That is the position you are in when God is for you. He is the Creator, which means He made everything. He is the Sustainer, which means He is actively holding everything together right now. And He is on your side. Why would you pick a fight you cannot win? Why would anyone?Now, I want to address something because I was thinking about it. Does this mean everyone gets to walk in this kind of confidence?I believe the victory is most fully experienced when you are aligned with Him. Not checklist-aligned. Not performance-based. Heart-aligned. When you are genuinely walking in love, when your intentions are not to oppress or harm or manipulate, when your heart is toward Him, that is when this promise becomes your daily reality. I think people who spend their time being oppressors or judgmental without accountability are not walking in this same kind of victory, and I say that with grace rather than judgment, because God can reach anyone. But the promise of Romans 8:31 is most alive in the person who has said yes to Him.And for those who have trusted Jesus, the bottom line is this: someone who is bigger, greater, and more powerful than anything you will ever face is standing with you. He has already defeated the worst thing that could happen, which is separation from God, on the cross. If He handled that, He can handle what is in front of you.Your soul is untouchable. Your standing is secure. Whatever wrong has been done to you can be left in His hands, because He is both your defender and your Father.So when the morning feels heavy and the breakthrough feels far away, read this verse like it is your armor. Because it is.If God is for us, who can be against us? The answer is no one that matters.Peace, Love and Joy alwaysInfinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I have a habit. I make the decision, I do the thing, and then somewhere in the process I go quiet and realize I did not actually ask God about it. And then I do what I always do. I go back to him and say something like, "So... are you okay with this?"He always works it out. Romans 8:28 is real and I have the receipts. But I keep thinking about what my road could have looked like if I had just gone to him first.Proverbs 19:21 says the plans in a person's heart are many but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. I have read that verse a hundred times. I have also made a hundred decisions without pausing to ask what his purpose was. Not because I do not believe he has one. Just because I moved fast.Tara Leigh Cobble brought it up in The Bible Recap and it made me more reflective than I expected. She talked about how if we say we love God, spending time in his word matters. Because if someone told you they loved you but never took the time to know anything about you, that would not feel like love. It would feel like a title. And that got me thinking about how I approach this whole consulting him thing.Because here is the honest tension I am still working through. Do I need to ask God about everything? Or just the big things?If I ask him about everything it starts to feel mechanical. Like I am checking a box before every move. That is not a relationship, that is a procedure. But if I only bring him the heavy decisions, I am basically managing access. Only letting him in when I think I need him. And that is not a relationship either.What I think it actually is, and I am still figuring this out in real time, is closer to what it looks like to know someone well enough that you naturally include them. You do not call your best friend for permission. You call her because you want her perspective before you move. It is not about procedure. It is about orientation.And mine has been off.Proverbs 19:3 says when a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord. That is one sentence but it holds so much. When I make a move without God and it goes sideways, my first instinct has not always been to own it. Sometimes I have looked around for something else to blame. Something external. Something that was not me. Proverbs saw that coming a long time ago.Then there is this: God describes himself as slow to anger. Tara pointed out that being slow to offend is part of real love. You cannot be in relationship with someone and have a hair trigger. God models this. Patience as character. Consistency as love. And we are supposed to be building that too.What I am taking from today is not a new rule. It is more of a reorientation. Not consulting God on every small thing out of anxiety but bringing him into the room before I make the call. The way you would with someone you trust and want to honor.I am working on it. And thankfully he is slow to anger with me while I do.Peace, Love and Joy alwaysTanyaInfinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

Somebody is going to do wrong by us. That is life. It might be a coworker, a friend, family, somebody you trusted. And when it happens, the first thing that rises up in most of us is the urge to even the score.Proverbs 20:22 speaks straight to that moment. "Do not say, 'I'll pay you back for this wrong!' Wait for the LORD, and he will avenge you."For a long time I read that verse one way. I thought it meant hold your peace, stay out of it, and God will handle them. His payback is bigger than anything I could come up with on my own, so let Him deliver it.Then I looked at the original word, and it changed how I read the whole verse.The Hebrew word translated "avenge" in the NIV is yasha. It means to save. To deliver. To rescue. It is the same root that gives us the name Yeshua, which is Jesus. So when Proverbs 20:22 says wait for the Lord and he will avenge you, the original language is saying wait for the Lord and he will deliver YOU.Read that again. The promise in this verse is about what God is going to do for you, before it is ever about what He does to them.That matters because of where revenge actually lives. When somebody wrongs us and we hold onto it, we end up doing time for their crime. We replay it. We rehearse what we should have said. We watch their life waiting for the fall. Offense becomes the place we live, and that place has no peace in it.God knows that. So His answer to the person who hurt you starts with rescuing you out of that place.The word translated "wait" is worth knowing too. In Hebrew it is qavah, and it comes from the word for a cord. The picture is a rope pulled tight, stretched toward what you are hoping for. Waiting on the Lord is active, expectant trust. You are anchored, and you are positioned for what He is about to do.Put those two words together and the verse opens up. Release the payback. Anchor yourself to God with expectation, and He will rescue you from the weight of what they did.Does God still deal with the wrong? Yes. Romans 12:19 says it plainly: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. Justice belongs to Him, and His justice is perfect because He sees everything we cannot. What is coming will come in His time. But notice He never invites us to watch for it or celebrate it. He invites us to hand it over and walk free.That is why forgiveness belongs in this conversation. Forgiveness is you taking your hands off the case and handing it to the Judge. It releases you to move on with your life while God handles what only He can handle.If you are in that place right now, here is a place to start. Tell God the truth about what they did and how it felt. Ask Him to take the case. Then every time the replay starts, hand it back. That is qavah in real life. You are choosing the anchor over the loop.Somebody is going to do wrong by us. That is a given. Living in offense is a choice. Turn it over to Him, forgive that person, and let yasha do what yasha means. God is settling more than your score. He is setting you free.Peace, Love and Joy always,TanyaInfinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

Have you ever asked someone for help and gotten the help, but with a side of "you should have known this already"? The help came, but so did the lecture. After a few rounds of that, you stop asking.James 1:5 says something completely different about God."If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5 NIVWhat I love about this verse is the part where it says He gives generously to all without finding fault. The translation I was listening to this morning says "without reproach" instead of "without finding fault," and I wanted to understand if there was a difference.Here is what I found. Both phrases translate the same Greek word, oneidizo. It means to scold, shame, or throw something back in someone's face. Finding fault points at the flaw. Reproach points at the scolding. The Greek leans toward reproach, which means James is saying God will never make you feel small for asking. He will never remind you of what you should have known. He just gives.The Bible often speaks of three pillars: knowledge, discernment, and wisdom. I had never realized how they build on each other. We understand situations and grasp them, that is knowledge. We exercise discernment to recognize what is really going on. Then wisdom is knowing how to apply that discernment to how we act, live, and talk.The key is to seek direction on how to walk in the Lord's path and to always pursue the word of God. Because here is a good point worth holding onto: in the bigger scheme of things, we will know very little. That calls for humility. We need the humility to always seek the Lord's direction and guidance in our lives, because He gives us that wisdom, and He does so generously every day. Our part is to apply His wisdom to our daily lives according to His will.That is truly how wisdom grows. We learn to apply our knowledge to our everyday choices and situations.The devotional I read, Wisdom of Life, put it this way: growing in spiritual wisdom happens when we use our knowledge of God, the world, and ourselves to make right decisions about how we should act, live, and talk as representatives of Christ. As we get to know God better, we grow in His wisdom and are equipped with the knowledge we need to live abundant lives that honor Him.Wisdom comes from our relationship with God. As we continue to seek Him, He provides us with opportunities to practice our wisdom and grow in our trust of Him. And as we trust Him with our choices, we start to see wisdom flourish in our lives.So how do we cultivate wisdom? We start by asking God for help. When we go to Him with humility and admit our need for Him, He generously gives us wisdom. Without finding fault. Without reproach. Exactly like James promised.You will never get the lecture. You will only get the wisdom.Peace, Love and Joy always, Tanya

What Does Blessed Are the Persecuted Actually Mean When Being Christian Is Kind of a Trend? | Matthew 5:10 | Beatitudes Series | He Is HIM | Faith in the City blog

I was doing my devotional the other morning in the section called Honor God, and there was a line that stopped me cold."God, when I think about you, I'm filled with awe and wonder. You are so much greater than me, and yet you want to know me."And my brain did something I did not expect. It went straight to the paparazzi.Stay with me.You know how celebrities can barely walk to their car without cameras in their face? How people camp outside hotels just to get a photo? How fans track tour buses and memorize schedules just to get thirty seconds of eye contact?That level of wanting. That obsession with access.Now flip it.God is royalty. Not metaphorically. Literally the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one who spoke the whole universe into existence and decided on a Tuesday that you were a good idea. He is the most powerful, most influential being in all of creation. He could have anything. He does not need anything.And He is out here acting like the paparazzi.Chasing you. Showing up where you are. Trying to get your attention. Longing to spend time with you.And what are we doing? We are in the car, windows up, hat pulled down, trying to sneak out the back.That broke me open a little.Because we talk so much about seeking God. About showing up to church, reading the Word, making time for prayer. All of that is real and good. But the thing we do not talk about enough is that He was already moving toward us before we took a single step toward Him.Zephaniah 3:17 says He rejoices over you with singing. Not tolerates. Not monitors from a distance. Rejoices. Sings. Over you specifically.The God who made the ocean decided that you were worth a song.And here we are, scrolling past our worth every day because we did not get enough likes on a post.Think about what that actually means for your confidence. Not church confidence. Not the version where you perform faith and hope people see it. Real, settled, walking-into-a-room confidence.The creator of everything thinks you are worth pursuing. He knows every embarrassing thing you have ever done, every thought you would never say out loud, every time you said you were fine when you were not, and He still shows up the next morning. Still longs for the relationship. Still wants more of your time.If a person did that we would call it love. When God does it we somehow convince ourselves it cannot be for us.It is for you.And knowing that, genuinely sitting with that, is worth more than a million followers, a perfect body, a full bank account, or any applause this world can give. All of that combined and multiplied by a million does not come close to what it feels like when the God who made you decides that knowing you is worth His time.The only question left is what are you going to do with that?Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I am going to be real with you. Last night I knew I should go to bed. I had prepared for it. I had given myself every opportunity. And I still stayed up too late scrolling and working and doing everything except the one thing my body was asking me to do. So I woke up exhausted. Not the fun kind of tired. The kind where your soul feels like it showed up to work with a limp.And then I opened Matthew 11:29-30."Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."I will be honest, I have read that verse more times than I can count and I never fully knew what a yoke was. I knew it was a word. I knew it was in the Bible. I did not know what it meant in a way that actually landed.So here is what a yoke is.In Jesus's time, farmers put a wooden frame across the necks of two animals, usually oxen, so they could pull a load together. One stronger, one weaker. The stronger animal set the pace. The weaker one did not have to figure it out alone or carry more than it could hold. That is the picture Jesus is painting.He is not asking you to carry more.He is offering to get under the weight with you.When He says "my yoke is easy," He is not saying your life gets easier. He is saying the way you carry it changes. You stop doing it alone. You stop white-knuckling through everything. You stop pretending you are fine. You surrender the weight to someone who actually has the strength to bear it, and you walk alongside Him while He does.I sat with that this morning and I felt something I can only describe as a gentle comfort in a very weary soul. Which is almost exactly what He promised in that verse.Here is the part that got me though.We live in a world where nothing is actually free. Somebody on Instagram is going to give you a free template, a free guide, a free checklist, but first you have to DM them a word. And when you do, you have given them your information, your attention, and a warm lead they can market to forever. The freebie was never really free. There was always a transaction waiting behind it.God does not operate like that."Come to me" does not come with fine print. There is no DM required. No purchase necessary. No email list you have to join before He will talk to you. He is just standing there with His hands open saying come. And the only thing He is asking you to learn is who He actually is, gentle, humble, willing to bear weight you were never built to carry alone.I needed to hear that today. Maybe you did too.If you are running on empty, if you went to bed too late for the second night in a row, if your soul is doing that thing where it aches in a way that sleep alone will not fix, this verse is not a motivational poster. It is an invitation. From someone who sees exactly how tired you are and is not asking you to perform your way to rest.Just come.Peace, Love and Joy always, TanyaInfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I almost scrolled past it this morning."The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10 NIVI read it and immediately thought — this doesn't make sense. Fear? Of God? I thought we were supposed to feel love. Peace. Safety. Why does wisdom start with fear?I sat with it for a minute, and then it hit me: I don't think this is talking about being scared. I think it's talking about reverence.Reverence is different from fear the way respect is different from terror. It's that feeling you get when you're standing at the edge of the ocean and you can't see where it ends. When you stare up at the night sky and realize the stars you're looking at are light-years away. When you stop and really think about everything God has made, everything He sustains, everything that keeps moving because He says so.That's what the Bible means when it says "fear of the Lord." It means awe. It means you know who He is, and that changes how you walk.Here's the thing — God is my Father. He's loving and good and full of grace. But He also has all power. The universe answers to Him. I know I don't have to be here. My life is here because of His grace, not because I earned it. So when I say I "fear" God, what I'm really saying is: I know who He is, and I don't want to act like I don't.The devotional I was reading put it perfectly. It said if you want to know how something works, go to the expert. If you want to know how a car engine works, you don't ask your neighbor who's never lifted a hood. You find a mechanic. If you want to know how life works, you go to the One who made it.And yet? We go everywhere else first.We ask our friends. Our family. Our coworkers. We scroll through advice threads and buy books written by people who are also just figuring it out. We trust our own gut, which is the same gut that sometimes leads us somewhere we had no business going. I'm guilty of it too. And not just with life advice — with everything. I'm so used to being independent and productive and making things happen on my own that I forget to lean on Him. I forget that surrender is not the same as giving up.Surrender is trusting that He already knows the plan. It's releasing your grip on the outcome and saying, Lord, you can do your thing. Because when I do that — when I actually let go — the peace that shows up is the kind Paul was talking about in Philippians 4:7. The peace that doesn't make sense. The peace that has nothing to do with what's happening around you.That's the promise in Proverbs 9:10. When you start with God, wisdom follows. When you study His character, understanding follows. When you look to Him instead of the people in your circle — who love you but also have their own blind spots — clarity follows.Here's what I walked away with this morning:The people in your life are not your God. The habits you've built are not your God. Your ability to hold everything together is not your God. The only One qualified for that job already has it.Let Him have it.Study His ways. Look to His character. And when life doesn't make sense, stop asking the wrong people. Start with the One who made the world and knows exactly how it works.That's not fear. That's wisdom.Peace, Love and Joy always — Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.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.

There’s a verse I go back to when things get heavy. When someone’s facing a job loss, a diagnosis, a relationship falling apart, or just that kind of darkness that doesn’t have a clear name or cause — I think of Joshua 1:9.“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”What I notice first every time is that God says “have I not commanded you?” — like this isn’t just an encouragement. It’s a reminder. He’s already given the instruction. Strength and courage aren’t personality traits we either have or we don’t. They are commands. Which means they’re available to us. Which means we can choose them even when we don’t feel them.And then: “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”He knows our default. He wouldn’t tell us not to be afraid if fear wasn’t our first instinct. He wouldn’t tell us not to be discouraged if discouragement wasn’t a real threat. He says it specifically because He knows exactly where we go when things get dark.The darkness can feel endless. I know that. There are seasons where it genuinely feels like the light has been permanently switched off and you’re just functioning in the dark, going through the motions, waiting for something to change. But God is our forever light and that light is always on. Always. Even when we can’t see it.We are never alone. Not metaphorically. Not “spiritually speaking.” Literally never alone. He will be with you wherever you go.Nothing is too big for God to handle. That’s not a bumper sticker. It’s a fact. He already has the victory. It’s already done from His vantage point. We are living through the part that feels uncertain to us, but He’s already on the other side of it. The outcome is settled.And this is where I want to push us a little.We say things like “my breakthrough is coming.” We sing it. We pray it. We hold onto it. And that’s faith. But I want us to think about the language a little more carefully.If the breakthrough is always “coming” — it’s perpetually in the future. It never arrives. It stays on its way. But God has already won the victory. The promise is already made. So what if we said, instead: “My breakthrough is here. I’m just waiting on the timing to catch up with the promise.”That feels different, right? That’s not just hopeful. That’s confident. That’s saying I know how this ends. I’m not waiting to find out. I’m living inside the certainty of a God who doesn’t lose.Whatever you’re walking through right now — job loss, fear, grief, a waiting season that has gone on longer than you planned — let me be the person who reminds you: God hasn’t forgotten you. He’s not withholding from you. The victory is already His and it covers you.Your breakthrough isn’t coming.It’s here.Peace, Love and Joy always — Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

My mom was generous with me recently. And I didn’t tell her the whole truth about what it was for.I knew what I was doing. I knew as it was happening. I gave her enough — just enough — to explain the situation without giving her the part that felt embarrassing. The part I didn’t want her to see. The part I was afraid she might judge.And then I sat with that.Proverbs 4:23 says: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”I’ve always read this as protection. Guard your heart from outside things coming in — from toxic people, negative influences, content that pulls you away from God. That’s part of it. But this morning it hit me differently.What if guarding your heart also means being honest about what you’re carrying inside it?Because what I’m carrying right now — the embarrassment, the fear of being judged by someone who loves me — that’s sitting in my heart. And Proverbs says everything I do flows from it. Which means if I don’t deal with it, it’s going to keep flowing. Into my relationships. Into my choices. Into the way I show up.I worked through it this way: I imagined a box in front of me. What goes in the box today? What am I asking God to take and work on?The list got real fast.That situation with my mom. Any fear I’ve been carrying. Trust issues I haven’t fully named. The moments where I’ve been petty. The places where I’ve been impatient.And what I realized is that this is what guarding your heart actually looks like in practice. It’s not a defensive wall. It’s an active, regular practice of bringing what’s inside out to God. Saying: here it is. All of it. I don’t want to carry this. I want your hands on it.I want the boldness to go back to my mom and tell her the whole thing. Not because the full truth is comfortable — it isn’t. But because I don’t want to build relationships on partial honesty. I don’t want what I’m embarrassed about to have more power than what I know to be true about grace.The fear of judgment is real. But it’s not stronger than God.So today, I’m guarding my heart by being honest about what’s in it. Putting the fear, the pettiness, the impatience, and the embarrassment in the box — not to suppress them but to hand them over. To say to God: I see these in me. I don’t want them running the show. Change what needs changing.In Jesus’s name. Amen and done.Peace, Love and Joy always — Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com