Faith In The City

I almost skipped today's verse of the day.John 8:32. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. My first reaction was that we already know this, so what was there to actually journal about. Then I slowed down and realized I had never actually thought through what it means for my life, not just the words on the page.Here is what got me. Think about how frustrating it is to watch someone on television talk like whatever they are saying is fact, when you know it is not true. They know it is not true too. And someone watching will believe it simply because that person said it with enough confidence and stood behind it long enough. We are living in a season where people are being convinced that truth is whatever they decide it is. That is not how truth actually works.Scripture is clear on this, and I am thankful for it. We are not supposed to look for truth to be grounded in a person, a platform, or even in ourselves. Real truth can only be sourced from God. In the Bible, he is our creator, our ruler, our sustainer. His word carries the truth, and it was given to us so we could actually live according to what is real, not what someone talked us into believing.When you keep yourself grounded in that truth, for real, you feel it. Peace shows up. Joy shows up. You get to live knowing you do not have to build your life on someone else's lies. They do not control you. You can tell the difference between what is true and what is just loud.Here is where I have work to do. I remember themes. I remember the feeling of a passage and roughly what it was about. I do not always remember the actual verse or where to find it in scripture. That told me I need to get more intentional about memorizing God's word itself, not just the takeaway, so I can point straight to where the truth is coming from instead of paraphrasing it from memory.The call to action today is simple. Take a few minutes and thank God for revealing himself to us through his word and for lighting up our lives with truth. I am thankful our creator is a truth teller. I am thankful he leads with love. I am thankful he does everything with integrity. He is the best role model we have, and he shows us exactly what to look for in the leaders we follow here on earth.This is also why sharing your faith matters so much to me. We cannot be set free by truth we do not know. If I keep it to myself, it does nothing for the people around me who need it too. Be intentional about reading God's word. Be intentional about sharing it. His word is our foundation, and he shows us through his own example how to live and how to love people.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Verse of the day: "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." Proverbs 16:9Almost every day, I ask God to order my steps. Some mornings that is the first thing I do. Other days it comes back around before the day is over. In my head, that phrase had one meaning. I wanted a list. Tell me what to do today, in order, so I do not have to guess. I have learned that is not really what this verse is about, and I am still working through what it actually means.The Lion Within, a YouVersion devotional, called this verse about submission. My first thought was, what does submission have to do with ordering my steps? But the narrator went somewhere I did not expect. He talked about how the world has turned submission into a dirty word, like it means weakness or losing yourself. He said the Holy Spirit corrected that for him. Submission is not about being weak. It is about surrendering because you trust completely.I needed to hear that this week specifically. I had just watched a documentary about a pastor I strongly suspect harmed his wife. In the clips they showed, he had taken the word submission and twisted it into permission. Whatever he wanted to do was what counted, and he used scripture to make that sound holy. It disturbed me, watching a woman who clearly loved God, who was human and imperfect like the rest of us, trapped inside a version of submission that had nothing to do with trust and everything to do with control. I caught myself judging her for staying, and then I had to catch myself again, because judgment is something I am actively working on. It is not always easy to hear God's voice clearly when you are standing in the middle of a situation surrounded by other voices. It takes time to find the quiet.So when the narrator described real submission through the picture of a horse and its owner, it made sense to me in a way it had not before. A horse trusts its owner completely, not because it is weak, but because it has learned that wherever the owner leads, it will be safe. That is the difference. Real submission comes from trust built over time. It is never about being forced into silence or handing over your voice to someone who does not have your good in mind.That reframes the whole verse for me. God establishing my steps does not mean he hands me a script every morning. It means he has the power to redirect my life, even when I had a completely different plan. I look at my own life and see it everywhere. I always pictured myself raising my son in Woodstock, Georgia, since that is where we lived when he was born. I just assumed that is where we would stay. Instead I am raising him in Dunwoody, a place my mother always wanted for me and a place I did not want for myself at the time. Now I cannot picture being anywhere else. I also had a dream of building a business with my brother. That dream has not happened the way I imagined, and it probably will not look the way I originally pictured it. I still believe God has something for me in that space. It will just look different than my original plan, the same way Dunwoody looked nothing like Woodstock.What stands out to me most in all of this is how humble God is. He knows every thought I have ever had, every choice I have made, every mistake, and he still wants a real relationship with me. He has complete control over everything that happens, and yet he still gives me free will. I do not fully understand how both of those things are true at once, but I love that they are. He does not need to control me to love me.I cannot say I have loved every part of my journey. I can say I like where I am. I am still working on my judgment. I am still working on bringing my plans to him first instead of after I have already built them out in my head. But I am surrendered. Whatever his plan looks like for my life and for my son's life, that is what I want, even on the days it feels quiet, even on the days it feels like I cannot hear him clearly.So here is what I am asking myself, and what I want to ask you too. Have you actually surrendered your plans to God, or have you just said the words? What would it look like to trust him the way a horse trusts the one who leads it?Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I read Romans 1:20 this week and something happened that doesn't happen a lot anymore. I felt like I was reading a verse for the first time, even though I know the general idea inside it. Here's what it says: "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20, NIV) My first reaction was that it felt both true and confusing at the same time. I know creation is a big deal. I know it says something about God. But when I sat down and asked myself what "eternal power" and "divine nature" mean, specifically, I realized I had never broken those two phrases apart. I had accepted the general vibe of the verse without understanding what it was actually claiming. So I looked into it. In the original Greek, "eternal power" is aidios dynamis. Aidios means without beginning or end. Dynamis means power or force, the same root we get the word dynamite from. Put together, Paul is saying creation reveals a power that never started and never runs out. Not power God built up. Power He has always had. "Divine nature" is a different word, theiotes. It only shows up this one time in the entire New Testament. It's not talking about God's full identity or His plan of salvation. It's pointing to the fact that whatever made this world is not a blind, random force. It's a distinct being with character, intention, and personality behind it. That distinction mattered to me. Eternal power tells you how much God can do. Divine nature tells you who He is while He's doing it. Here's the part that had been tripping me up. The verse says these two things "have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." I kept reading that like it was supposed to make everything click. Like I should look at the sky and immediately understand the full weight of who God is. When that didn't happen, I started to wonder if I was missing something. I wasn't. Paul isn't saying creation gives you the whole picture. He's saying it gives you enough. Enough to know God exists. Enough to know He is powerful beyond anything we can measure. Enough that nobody gets to stand in front of Him one day and say they had no idea. That's a much smaller claim than "understand everything about God by looking outside," and once I saw that, the verse made a lot more sense. It also explained something I've felt for a long time and never had words for. I've looked at the sky my whole life. I know what I know about the moon, the stars, the sun. I read about the Milky Way once, a long time ago, and I still remember feeling like there was more out there than I could actually process. That feeling isn't a gap in my faith. It's the exact tension this verse describes. Creation shows real, sufficient evidence of a Creator. It was never designed to hand you a complete explanation of Him. The mystery isn't a flaw in the system. It's built into it on purpose. So if you've ever read a familiar verse and felt like you should already understand it and didn't, you're not behind. You're not missing some obvious thing everyone else already knows. Some parts of who God is were never meant to be fully explained by a sunset. They were meant to point you toward Him so you'd go looking for the rest. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I am on Day 214 of the Bible Recap with Tara-Leigh Cobble, and something she said made me want to dig deeper. Whenever something goes wrong in my life, I go straight to "get behind me, Satan." I picture him showing up in the hard moments, trying to hold me down, and I refuse to let him win. That has always been my picture of how the enemy operates. Tara-Leigh offered a different picture. We are reading 2 Kings 20, the chapter where Hezekiah gets sick, is told the illness is fatal, and begs God for more time. God grants him fifteen more years. That part reads like a win. Right after his healing, envoys from Babylon show up, officially to congratulate him, and Hezekiah walks them through everything he owns. The silver, the gold, the spices, the armory. Nothing held back. When Isaiah asks what he showed them, Hezekiah says all of it. Isaiah tells him that one day it will all be carried off to Babylon, along with some of his own descendants. Hezekiah's response is the part that gave me pause. He says the word is good, because at least there will be peace and security in his own lifetime. He was not troubled that it would cost his kids and grandkids, because he would not be the one who had to live through it. He had just been blessed with fifteen more years, and he got careless with it. He was thinking about his own comfort, not his legacy, and he mistook that comfort for peace. This is the pattern Tara-Leigh pointed out. The enemy may not come at us through trials as often as we think. He may come through whatever makes us feel steady enough to stop reaching for God, because he knows the real target was never our circumstances. It was our relationship with Him. I want to name where I actually am right now, because I do not want to write this like my life is currently the picture of everything working out. I do not have a job. I do not have income coming in on a regular basis. I am living off savings God has already provided. But I am at peace. I am content. I am surrendered. That peace is not because my circumstances look good on paper. It is because I am trusting that He already has provision in motion and He will deliver it when He is ready. So maybe the danger Tara-Leigh named is not really about money or ease specifically. It is about anything that makes you feel steady enough to stop reaching for Him, whether that steadiness comes from a full bank account or a full sense of peace. When we are down and out, we lean into Him. We call on Him. The real question is whether I keep reaching for Him now, in this season of trust, the same way I reached for Him when things were falling apart. My first reaction to Tara-Leigh's point was to push back on my own thought. If the pattern is real, does it mean my love for God was never fully sincere in the hard seasons? When you actually love someone, you want to be with them regardless of the season. You do not only show up when you need something. That question is still something I am turning over, and I do not have a full answer for it yet. While I was still thinking about this, my mind went to "Vice Versa" by Pastor Troy. The song plays with the idea that we might have good and bad flipped, that what looks evil could be good and what looks holy could be the trap. I like the song. I do not agree with what it is saying. That combination makes me uncomfortable, enjoying something clever while knowing it pulls in a direction I do not believe. I am not writing this to endorse the song. I am naming the tension of liking something that does not line up with what I hold to be true. Here is where I am on this, at least for now. I believe the enemy is strategic enough to study what each of us actually wants. If power moves you, he can hand you more power to pull you away. If it is money, influence, or attention, he can use those too. That lines up with why God is so clear about being the one thing that sits at the center of your heart, because anything else sitting there becomes an idol, whether it looks like a golden statue, a growing bank account, or fifteen extra years spent only on yourself. Hezekiah had a chance to use his blessing to secure something for the generations after him, and he chose his own peace instead. I think about that next to how I pray for my son. When I pray, I am not only asking for peace in my own days. I am praying for Jordan's legacy, that he flourishes and lives the purpose God has for him, not just so my time here feels good. I want things to be better for him, whether or not I am still around to see it. So here is the question I am carrying today. I know how to call on God when life is hard. Do I know how to stay close to Him when life is calm and I am content? If the enemy really does use steadiness as an entry point, staying anchored in seasons of peace matters as much as surviving the hard ones. Maybe more, because that is when I am least on guard. I do not have this fully figured out. But I would rather ask the question honestly than assume I am safe just because I feel at peace right now. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I read John 14:27 again this morning. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. And it hit me the way it always hits me when I actually slow down and let it.God wants to give us His peace. He is happy to give it. And in exchange, all He asks for is our worries, our anxiety, everything that has us overwhelmed. That is the whole trade. He takes the heavy thing off our hands and hands us peace instead.Every time I sit with that verse, it makes me happy, because think about how selfless that actually is. I have looked for that kind of giving everywhere, even from the people who love me most, and I have never found it anywhere else.My son Jordan is the clearest example I have. I try to surround him with peace every single day. That is genuinely my goal as his mother. But I cannot give him God's peace, because my peace comes with limitations His does not have. I get cranky sometimes. I get impatient. And if I am honest about my own humanity, there are moments I want something in return. Sweep the floor. Pick up after yourself. Give me a hug. Those are not bad things to want from your kid, but they are still wants. God does not operate that way.That is the difference between human love and His love, even at its best. Human love, even good love, even love that shows up every day, still has an edge to it somewhere. Mine does. God's does not have an edge. There is no place where it runs out.I believe God does want a relationship with us. I think that is real and I think it matters to Him. But here is the part that gets me every time. Even when you have not cultivated that relationship, He gives you the peace anyway. He gives you the grace anyway. The mercy. The forgiveness. All of it, unconditional, no strings attached, no waiting period, no proving yourself first.This is exactly what Come As You Are means to me. You do not have to clean yourself up first. You do not have to have the relationship figured out before He extends the peace. He extends it while you are still figuring it out, still ignoring Him some days, still making a mess of things. That is not permission to stay distant from Him forever. It is proof the door was never locked in the first place.I think about how many years I spent walking around not acknowledging Him at all, and He was still giving me all of it the entire time. I was not earning any of it. I was not even asking for most of it. He gave it because that is who He is, not because of anything I did to deserve it.There is nobody else like that. Not one person on this earth loves you with zero conditions attached, not even the people who would say they do. Somebody always wants something back eventually, even if it is small, even if it is just your attention or your time or your gratitude expressed the right way. God does not run His love like that.So if you are reading this and you are carrying something today, worry, fear, whatever has your chest tight, that is literally what He asked for. Not your performance. Not your perfect track record with Him. Just the weight you are already carrying. Hand it over and take the peace He is already trying to give you.He is Him. Mic drop.Peace, Love and Joy always.Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

A friend once told me something that stuck with me for years. Based on what he knew about Christianity, he said people could do whatever they wanted here on earth and then apologize right before they died, and God would forgive them anyway. He didn't think that was right. I didn't have a good answer for him. I wasn't in the Word the way I needed to be back then, and something about his objection felt off to me too. I just couldn't explain why.This morning I read James 3:13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. A devotional from Life.Church broke it down this way. Wisdom comes from being surrendered, not from what you have achieved. The question is not whether you talk a good game about God. It is whether your life proves it.That word 'prove' is what got me. Prove you trust God by starting your day with real confidence in Him instead of panic. Prove you love your neighbor by going out of your way to notice and honor the people around you. Prove you follow Jesus by living in a way that reflects His heart, which is love. Your life backs up your words. That means trying to make it right when you mess up, not earning your way into God's favor with a perfect record. A changed heart shows up in how you respond after you get it wrong.That is the piece my friend was missing, and the piece I couldn't put into words for him back then. God knows your heart. Real sorrow is not a phrase you say to avoid consequences. It is a shift that actually turns you around. Being sorry you got caught and being sorry enough to change direction are two different things, and God can tell which one He is looking at. One is about escaping what is coming. The other is about who you are becoming.If you've ever heard someone use grace as an excuse and it made you want to walk away from church altogether, I get it. Grace is an invitation to actually change, starting today. It was never a free pass to keep doing whatever you want until your very last breath.The devotional closed with a question I keep coming back to. Do your thoughts match what people see on the outside? Ask God to show you what He has called you to do and who He has called you to be.I have to look at myself here too. I go to everyone else before I go to God. I call my friends, I talk it through out loud, and somewhere down the list, I finally pray about it. Someone came to me last night needing to talk through a decision, and in my head I was thinking she shouldn't be asking me. I am indecisive myself. She needs to take this to God. But I do the exact same thing she was doing. We all do. It feels good to have someone respond right away, even if that someone is a friend or an app on your phone. Only God actually knows the real answer.Wisdom is not something you announce. It shows up in your life, one honest choice at a time. And the first person I bring my decisions to should be God, not the last one.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Some mornings I hit record before I have done a single thing to my face. Hair still tied down from the night before. No lip gloss, no lash, no filter waiting to smooth anything out. Just me, fresh out of bed, talking to a camera about God. I used to think that mattered. I thought I needed to be polished before I was worth listening to. I thought the message would land better if I looked like I had it together first. Here is what changed that for me. Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you." Perfect peace comes from trust. It has nothing to do with how someone looks or how put together they are before they show up. My trust is in a place it has never been before, and I can feel the difference every single day. When I come to Him first thing in the morning, bed head and all, I am just there, steady, because I trust that He already knows exactly who I am and He is not going anywhere. That is the whole point of Come As You Are. What He already did on the cross is the reason coming as you are actually works. I do not have to earn my way into being accepted. He already settled that. My job now is to walk in it, not audition for it. I have also been thinking a lot about Esther. She was made beautiful on purpose, for positioning rather than vanity. I believe the same is true for me. Being made attractive and being made a positive person were placed in me on purpose, so I would use them to point people back to Him instead of to myself. Pretty and positive on purpose. That is stewardship, not pride. If you have ever felt like you needed to fix yourself before you could pray, before you could walk into a church, before you could open your Bible, hear this. That pressure comes from a broken picture of faith, not from God. He is waiting on you to trust Him, not to look ready. Steadfast means staying fixed on Him even when everything else is a mess, not being flawless. So when you see me on camera without makeup, hair not done, coffee not even made yet, that is me showing you what trust actually looks like when nobody is watching, not me slipping. If the Most High accepts me exactly as I am in that moment, He accepts you exactly as you are too. Fresh out of bed. Freshly made up. Anywhere in between. You do not have to fix yourself before you come to Him. Come as you are. He already made a way for that to be enough. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com.

I'm in an uncertain season right now. I won't pretend otherwise. When I read Psalm 34:19 this week, one line grabbed me. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. That word deliver made me stop. I wanted to know exactly what it promises. This verse is attributed to David, written while he was hiding in a cave, running from a man who wanted him dead. He wasn't safe yet. He hadn't been rescued yet. He wrote this from inside the trouble, not looking back on it after the fact. The Hebrew word behind delivers is natsal. It means God actively pulls you out, snatches you away, and sets you down somewhere safer. It's not a passive fixing itself over time. It's God moving with intention on your behalf. Here's what I needed to hear this week. Being righteous never meant David was exempt from danger. It meant God would deliver him through it, completely, every single time. And that promise didn't stop with David. Naomi lost everything and God rebuilt her family through Ruth. Joseph spent years in a pit and a prison before God moved him into a palace. Daniel walked into a den of lions and walked out untouched. Rahab hid two spies and ended up in the family line of Jesus. God has a track record, and it's a long one. I'm living that same tension right now. I trust that God is with me. Some days I question where He is, because I'm not feeling Him or hearing from Him the way I want to. But I know He keeps His promises. He's done it before for me, and I'm confident He'll do it again. If there's one thing in this life I would bet everything on, it's Him. A devotional I read this week described God as someone who shows up by comforting us, guiding us, correcting us, rerouting us, and reminding us of what's true. He gives us peace in the middle of trouble and He encourages us to stay in Him, trust Him, and hope in Him while He works behind the scenes. I needed that reminder because I feel needy a lot. I wondered if that makes me a nuisance to God. But His presence is inexhaustible. He doesn't run out. He doesn't get tired of me needing Him. We need Him every moment of every day to breathe, survive, thrive, and flourish, and He's already guaranteed He'll be there. If you're in a season right now where nothing feels like it's going your way, your money isn't where you want it, your relationship isn't what you hoped for, your job situation feels unstable, this verse is for you too. Being a believer was never a guarantee that trouble skips you. It's a guarantee that you won't go through it alone, and you won't stay stuck in it. Tell God exactly what you're going through. Then thank Him for the deliverance that's already coming. It costs you nothing. Jesus already paid the price. All it costs you is trust and patience while you wait on Him to move. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to become angry. James 1:19 gets quoted so often it almost sounds like it should've made the cut for Proverbs. I've even heard people connect it to why we have two ears and only one mouth. But here's what most people miss. James 1:19 isn't just talking about how we treat each other. The context of the verse is about how we treat the word of God. I got reminded of that listening to the narrator in my kids' Bible reading experience. She pointed out that later in the same chapter, James tells us we should be doers of the word and not merely hearers (James 1:22). That changes the whole verse. Being quick to listen isn't only about giving someone your full attention in a conversation. It's about how fast we move when God speaks. Can He count on us to do something the moment we feel the nudge from the Holy Spirit? Are we quick to obey in faith, or do we hold back, wait, negotiate, stall? Then there's the anger part. James 1:20 says human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. Only His word does. That's worth more reflection than a quick read gives it. My anger, however justified it feels in the moment, is not what produces the right kind of living God is after. His word is. If we want to be followers of God, we have to know His word and obey it. That means taking time to actually listen to Him, being ready to act the first time He speaks, pacing ourselves when we want to react, and keeping anger in check. Practically, that looks like this. When something makes me angry or frustrated, instead of reacting on impulse, I pause. I pray. I ask God to help me respond with kindness and grace instead of whatever the emotion of the moment wants to hand me. That's the difference between reacting like the world does and responding like He asks us to. If you've ever felt convicted about talking too fast, reacting too quickly, or letting anger drive the moment, James 1:19-20 isn't shaming you. It's showing you a better way. Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to anger. This is what obedience looks like. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

There's a verse in Revelation that gets me every time."There will be no more death or mourning, crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4Every time I read it I feel excited to have that experience. I know it means leaving this world, and I'm not ready to do that. Mostly because of Jordan, though I love him. He's my only son and I want to see him grow. I want to see how his life unfolds.Then there's Lauren. She's not my daughter by birth, but I've accepted responsibility for her, and I want to see her grow too. I want grandchildren through both of them, which feels strange to admit since I didn't even want children for most of my life. Now I want grandchildren I haven't met yet, through kids who haven't gotten there yet.Outside of them, I think I'd be ready. I want to be clear, I wouldn't do that to myself. I'm just saying, when you really think about how this sounds, it's a lot.So I looked into what this verse is actually promising, because I wanted to know what John was describing, not just what "heaven" usually means to people.Here's what my research found: Revelation 21:4 isn't a standalone promise about floating off to heaven when the body dies. It sits inside the description of the New Heaven and New Earth, the section of Revelation where God isn't just receiving us into His space. He's remaking creation itself and living in it with us, permanently. It's the final chapter after the resurrection and the judgment, not a layover. The old order isn't paused. It's gone, period.That distinction matters to me. This isn't about escaping to somewhere else. It's about everything broken getting made new, including the world Jordan and Lauren will still be living in.The narrator I was listening to this morning put it simply: we can trust God to do this. We can trust Him.I live in a broken world. It's broken because it's fallen, and thankfully that's temporary. There's a place coming where we get to be joyful because that's simply what it is there. That fills me with hope. As joyful as I feel today, and I do feel joyful, I'm choosing that in spite of what I'm dealing with. There's a place coming where joy isn't a choice anymore. It's just what it is. A place filled with peace, love, and joy.I don't have this fully resolved, and I don't think I'm supposed to. I love my life, I love Jordan, I love Lauren, and I want years with both of them. But I can hold that and still get excited reading a verse like this. Both things are true.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Esau ran to embrace the brother who betrayed him. Here's what that story taught me about forgiving from God's strength instead of my own, and why I don't have to carry it alone.

People in Haiti eat cookies made of dirt. I looked it up. It's true. Real mud, mixed with salt and shortening, baked in the sun, because for some families that's more affordable than rice.Hearing that destroyed me because I let myself actually picture what that day to day life looks like for a family that has no other option.The point is gratitude, not guilt. Whatever we're complaining about, somebody else is dealing with something heavier, and that's meant to remind us how blessed we already are.We're tired of sitting in traffic. Somewhere close by there's a person standing at a bus stop who would trade places with us right now. We're sick of our job. There are about 7.1 million people in this country without one who would take it tomorrow. We're frustrated with a spouse. There are roughly 117 million single adults in America who would love to have that problem.What we're feeling is still real. But it puts things in order. Worship instead of worry. Hands on somebody else's situation instead of staring at our own.There's a saying that if you complain, you remain. I want to say it better. Complaining keeps us circling the same mountain. Serving somebody moves us forward, even before our own situation changes.So here's where I actually land, and I don't have a clean answer yet. If helping somebody is the move, who do I help first? There are so many people who need it, and I'm working through what that actually requires of me right now.I don't know yet. But it starts with a phone call to somebody carrying something heavier than I am, and showing up.We were built to be in community with each other. That's the whole point.Some days I don't have this figured out. Today is one of those days, and that's allowed too.Peace, Love and Joy always.Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I read Revelation 4:11 this morning and got stuck on one line. "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."The first half made sense right away. He created everything, of course He's worthy. Then it says they "have their being," and I paused, wondering why it sounded like the same idea twice. Created. Have their being. Isn't that repeating itself?It's not. Different translations order the line differently. The ESV says "they existed and were created." The NIV says "they were created and have their being." Both point to two separate ideas packed into one sentence. Being created is the one time act. Having your being is what's happening right now, this second, because He's still willing you into existence. Paul says almost the same thing in Colossians, "in him all things hold together." The writer of Hebrews says God is "sustaining all things by his powerful word." You weren't made once and left to run on your own. You're being held up in real time.That realization changed how I read the rest of my devotional this morning. It talked about how much God created, and how He did it from nothing. Ex nihilo is the actual term for that, out of nothing. No raw material. No starting point borrowed from somewhere else. He spoke and it existed.I take life for granted more than I'd like to admit. I look around at how everything works in its own ecosystem, and then how all those ecosystems work together, and I feel privileged just to witness it. Privileged to be here at this exact time. My mom talks about how she grew up, and I think, thank God he knew that wasn't what I wanted to deal with.He made me in every way, even the parts I complain about. I ask why I have acne and moles as a teenager and still as an adult. But at the end of the day I'm excited that He created me to flourish. Flourish and succeed are not interchangeable. He made me specifically for this time, for this moment, for exactly where I am. If there's this much of creation I can't even see, I can't wait to find out what else He has for me.I think about the people I've lost, the ones I was truly close to, and I wish they were still in it with me. But knowing He's kept me here for a reason makes me want to keep asking. Have I touched who You wanted me to touch? Is there more? Have I even started?The other day I realized I might never find out if I've reached everyone the people I've lost wanted me to reach. He may never reveal that to me. That made me a little sad, until I recognized wanting to know is partly for my own peace, not because the mission changes either way. I still want to know I'm making a positive difference. That part doesn't go away, and I don't think it's supposed to.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. Proverbs 17:17.The first time I really read that verse, I got stuck on it. If a friend is truly a friend, wouldn't they already show up in adversity? Why does it sound like a friend and a brother are two different people, one for the easy seasons and one for the hard ones.Reading it again made me think it's saying something different. A friend isn't disqualified from becoming a brother. A real friend becomes a brother, or a sister, the moment adversity shows up. It's not a friend versus a brother. It's a friend who turns out to be a brother when it counts.One of the teachers on First15 told a story that made the point land for me. He and a friend went for a hike, got off the trail, and ended up in a scramble as the light started fading. He said he couldn't have made it through that afternoon alone. That's what this proverb is describing. A friend loves you through the good times. A brother is who that friend becomes when you're scrambling to find your way back before dark. Adversity doesn't create the friendship. It reveals it. And the friends who stay through the test are usually the ones you keep for life. He said something else that made me want to dig deeper: we were never designed to find our way out of the dark by ourselves. We were built to ask for help and to lean on people when we're struggling.I needed to hear that, because I hate asking for help. Not too long ago my best friend called me out for it. She told me I never ask for help and reminded me it's okay to. I'm getting emotional writing this, because asking makes me feel vulnerable. It makes me feel like I've failed, like I could have managed something better and wouldn't be in the spot I'm in if I had. So for most of my life I've avoided asking at almost any cost.I've gotten better at two things. Asking once I've genuinely done everything I can on my own. And being okay with resting before I push into the next task, even when it has nothing to do with needing anyone else.I don't think I'm the only one who struggles with this. A lot of us can do things, spend money, and show up when it's time for fun. But when it's time for something real, something that actually keeps us going, we get quiet about needing help. Feeling vulnerable, feeling like a failure, feeling like if we'd managed our time or money differently we wouldn't need anyone. And here's the piece I hadn't thought about before: some of us won't lean into God either, for the same reason. We think needing Him means we've already failed.One of my other devotionals put language to this I hadn't heard before. The world pushes us toward self-dependency, but God built us for each other. For community. For a life that was never meant to be lived alone. It's the same thing people mean when they say it takes a village, except I've actually watched it play out.A couple of years ago I had hip replacement surgery and couldn't take my son Jordan to his championship game. That broke my heart. But his teammate Jeremiah's parent, who lives close by, offered to take Jordan along with the rest of the kids. The moment we made that connection, it stopped being a favor. It became family. That's the village. That's what it looks like to have people who show up for your adversity, not just your good days.A friend's genuine care. A sibling's unconditional love. A neighbor's practical help. None of it can be replaced, and none of it is small.So here's the call to action, the same one this scripture put on me. If there's someone you've unintentionally neglected because life got busy, reach out. If there's an unresolved conflict sitting between you and someone you love, this is the moment to set the pride down, or the bitterness, or the unforgiveness, and stop struggling through it alone. It doesn't have to be a big gesture. A call, a text, an email, checking in, asking how you can help, or actually asking for help yourself.We were never meant to isolate. We were built to grow, to flourish, and to get through the dark together.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I read something this morning that changed how I think about forgiveness completely.Ephesians 4:32 says to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.Today, listening to Scott Savage break down the reading in the Bible Recap, something clicked that never had before.He talked about a time in his own life when someone betrayed him and he genuinely did not feel like he had the capacity to forgive them. What he came to understand is that we are not called to forgive based on how much forgiveness we personally have in us. We are called to forgive based on how much God has already forgiven us, and then pass that forward. His forgiveness was never meant to stop with us. It is a reservoir. We are supposed to keep giving it away.As a Cancer, I am the type to hold onto hurt and bitterness longer than I should. That has always been true for me. I have really struggled in the past to let things go when people hurt me.What has changed is not that I finally figured out some perfect formula. It is that I understand something now I did not understand before. Holding onto hurt only hurts me. The peace I have now, the peace that goes beyond understanding, does not leave room for me to keep replaying what someone did to me. I don't want anything in my spirit that would keep me from God, His love, and eternal life.I am not saying this is easy. I am saying I have learned to forgive quicker and release faster, mostly because I keep turning my focus back to the joy and the peace I already have. When you spend your day saying thank you God, thank you for life, thank you for another chance, there just is not a lot of room left over for bitterness.I think this is true for grace and mercy too, not just forgiveness. It is really about how we treat people in general. Scripture is not quiet on this. It talks again and again about how we treat the undervalued, the oppressed, the widows, the orphans. I think the grace and mercy God gives me every single day is something I am supposed to take and hand to the next person. Wanting God to keep extending that to me is part of what has made me quicker to extend it to others.A devotional called Love in Action reinforced this same idea today, pointing to 1 John 4:11, 1 Peter 3:8, and Luke 6:36. All three talk about being sympathetic, compassionate, and humble with each other because of how God first loved us. The devotional made a point that stuck with me. If we fail to love people well, we also fail to show them God's love. Compassion is not a nice extra. It is one of the main ways we communicate who God is to somebody else.If you want a picture of what this actually looks like in real life, read through the story of Jesus in Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John. That is the blueprint for compassion, kindness, and forgiveness.Here is where I want to leave you. Think about the people in your life right now. Who could use some compassion from you? Who do you need to forgive? Who needs your encouragement or your kindness today? Then go do it. Show them. Let them see God through how you treat them, how you love them, how you encourage them, and how you make them believe they can do it too.To me, that is the whole foundation of discipleship. It is the road to eternal life.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

"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

Every time I read Psalm 8:3-4, I think the same thing."When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?"He is the most powerful being there is. He created the entire universe with His own hands. And He is still mindful of us. He still cares. Why?I think about that question every time I read this verse. I know what I bring to this relationship, and I know what He brings, and I am not equal to what He gives me.I can be self-sabotaging. I can be selfish and self-absorbed. I have done things I am not proud of. And still He loves me. He delights in me. He is eager to be in relationship with me, even when I am the one who keeps falling short.I think about how much I love my son, how far I would go for him, and I know that love is real. But God's love does not just outsize that. It works differently than any love I have ever known. His capacity to forgive, His willingness to give grace and mercy to people who have not earned it, is overwhelming when you think about it.And He did not even have to make us in His image. That was His choice. He chose to make us like Him, knowing exactly how we would treat that gift.Here is the part that gets me the most. I used to think I questioned God's authority. I do not question His authority. What I question is His whereabouts. I ask why He is silent. I wonder why He has not intervened, and half the time I never even called on Him in the first place.He takes all of that from me. All of it. And He keeps His arms open anyway.That is who He is. He is the God who protects us and watches over us, because no one else treats us the way He does. His love does not run out and it does not run on our performance.If you have ever wondered why God still shows up for you when you have not shown up for Him, that is your answer. He is not waiting on you to earn it. He never was.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I used to think the Trinity was one of those churchy things you just accept without understanding. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, got it, moving on. Then this year I actually sat with it and realized nobody had ever broken it down for me in a way that made sense.Here's what got me. Genesis says God spoke creation into existence. Let there be light. But John chapter one says Jesus is the Word, and everything was made through him. So which is it? Did God speak it or did Jesus make it?Both. The Father spoke the intention. Jesus did the work. Colossians 1 says it plain, everything was created through him and holds together in him. That is not two different stories, that is the Trinity working exactly the way it's supposed to. One God, three persons, each one doing what only they do.Then I found something that confused me even more. First John 2:1 calls Jesus our advocate. But John 14:16 has Jesus calling the Holy Spirit "another advocate." Same word. I thought I was misreading it.I wasn't. The Greek word is parakletos and yes, it gets used for both of them. But the job is not identical. Jesus advocates for us in heaven, standing between us and judgment, pleading our case before the Father. Romans 8 and Hebrews 7 both say he's doing it right now, not once, continuously. That is Jesus's lane.The Holy Spirit's lane is different. The Spirit does not plead our case in a courtroom we can't see. The Spirit lives in us and does the work right here. Teaches us, reminds us of what we already know, John 14:26. Guides us into truth, John 16:13. That feeling you get, the pull toward something, the check in your spirit when something is off, that's not a coincidence and it's not just intuition. That's the Spirit's specific assignment.So Jesus is your defense in the courtroom. The Spirit is the one walking beside you giving you the nudge before you even get there. Different jobs, same purpose, one God.While I was in this, I ran into the angel question too and this one surprised me more. I always assumed angels ranked above us since they're described as heavenly beings and we're just, well, us. But Genesis says humans are made in God's image. Scripture never says that about angels. Hebrews 1:14 goes further and says angels are ministering spirits sent to serve people who are inheriting salvation. Read that twice. They serve us.We also don't become angels when we die. That one is not in the Bible anywhere, it's just something that got passed around until it sounded true. Angels are their own created category, separate from humans, before and after.There is a verse that made me understand where the "angels are higher" idea came from though. Psalm 8 says we were made a little lower than the angels. That's real, that's in there. But the same psalm says we're crowned with glory and honor, and First Corinthians 6 says believers will judge angels one day. So angels hold a power position we currently don't. We hold a standing they were never given.None of this changes what I believe. It just gave me language for what I already sensed. God did not leave any of this vague. He gave the Father, the Son, and the Spirit each their own role and he gave angels their own role too, and none of it competes for space. It just works.If you've ever felt confused reading these same verses, you are not behind. You are exactly where I was a few weeks ago.Peace, Love and Joy always — Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

Scrolling is easier. Staying busy is easier. It is easier to keep swiping past the deeper questions than to sit still long enough to confess and repent. It is easier to dismiss God altogether than to trust Him with your soul.I know this because I have done both. I have picked the easy road more times than I want to admit.But the harder road is the one worth taking. Jesus said the gate is narrow and the road is difficult that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). Not because God is trying to make it hard. Because the easy road does not actually lead anywhere good. It just feels safer in the moment.Distraction is not neutral. Every hour spent scrolling is an hour you could have spent with God. It is also an hour you could have spent pursuing your own purpose instead of watching someone else pursue theirs. Building your own lane instead of watching someone else build theirs. Turning your own expertise into income instead of watching someone else turn their life into entertainment so they can get paid. That time could go toward something that uplifts you, something that grows your finances, something that is part of taking care of yourself. Instead it goes toward watching.Most of what shows up on a feed is not neutral either. If it is not an outright lie or a scam, it is information with the details left out, shaped to entertain you or sell you something. Some of it is genuinely good. Some accounts uplift and encourage and that is real and worth keeping. But a lot of it is built to hold your attention, not to help you.I have scrolled an hour past when I should have been asleep and then gotten upset with myself in the morning over how little I actually gained from it. That is the pattern. Confession and repentance require you to stop moving long enough to look at what is real. Scrolling lets you keep moving so you never have to look, at your soul, your purpose, or your own life.Dismissing God altogether is the same avoidance, just with a bigger door. If He does not exist, you never have to answer to Him. You never have to trust Him with the parts of your life you are scared to hand over. That is not freedom. That is just a longer way of running.There is no way to God except through Jesus Christ. The narrow gate is narrow because it only leads one direction. Straight to Him.If you are exhausted from running, the invitation is still open. Stop scrolling long enough to confess what is real, to pursue what is actually yours to build, to rest the way you actually need to. The road is harder. It is also the only one that gets you home.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com