Faith In The City

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

I did not expect this.I do not miss my games. I do not miss my shows. Every so often I will turn on something like Dateline or 20/20, and the second I hear it is going to be about a murder, I catch myself thinking I do not want that in my spirit right now, and I turn it off. That surprises me every single time.Here is what surprised me even more. The area I actually still struggle with is not the one I expected. I wish God would answer my prayers about sweets the way He has answered everything else. I wish wanting to work out consistently came as easily as walking away from things I used to think I could never live without. It has not. Not yet.So if you are expecting this road to be easy, you are mistaken. But if you are expecting it to be unbearable, hang on, because I think that depends entirely on where you are coming from and what you are actually surrendering.This is what got me thinking about Matthew 7:14 this morning. Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. That verse used to sound exclusive to me in a way that made me uncomfortable. If eternal life is free for everyone, why does it say only a few find it? It felt like the invitation was open but the door was somehow locked for most people.I have been walking this road long enough now to understand what that verse is actually saying. The gate is open to every single person. The road is not crowded, but that is not because God is hiding it from anyone.I never expected this road to be easy. Disciples struggled with it. Jesus died for it. What I did not expect was how peaceful parts of it would become, and how much I would not miss the things I assumed I would miss the most.There are still moments I want to respond to something the way I used to. I have to hold my tongue more than I used to, especially when it comes to integrity. But holding it feels different now. I get to walk away without shame or guilt. I do not have to carry the weight of wondering if I hurt someone or said something I should not have said.What I love most about this road is the hope built into it. I am not depending on my own strength, or waiting on another person to make something happen for me. My Bible Recap reading today put words to something I have felt for a while now. This road is the only one that promises true life, the kind where your success is not controlled by the world around you, where your feelings, your failures, and your relationships do not run the show. Peace and joy stay intact regardless of what is happening around you.The devotional made a point that stuck with me. Just because something is easy does not mean it is what is best for you. Eating healthy over a candy bar. Saving your money instead of spending it at the club. Hiking a mountain instead of staying on the couch. Small choices, same principle, every time.Then it said something that made me want to dig deeper. Jesus invites the entire world, but His invitation is exclusive, because not every path, religion, or good intention leads to God. That sentence is not comfortable. It is true.Here is the part that matters most. We do not earn our way through that gate by searching the hardest, climbing the highest, or praying the longest. Jesus makes it clear in John 10:7. I am the gate. He is not one option pointing toward God among many. He is the entry point itself.We cannot earn His love or His salvation. We can only accept the gift of grace already sitting in front of us and walk through it.That grace is where I bring my own honesty back into this. I prayed about pornography. I prayed about sexual desire outside of what God actually wants for me. I do not miss either one the way I thought I would, and I am not writing that to sound like I never wanted them, or like this makes me better than anyone still working through it. A lot of us have been there. I just do not want anyone to feel like they have to hide there. Every once in a while a desire still shows up. I notice it, and then I move on. That is not a testimony about my willpower. That is what grace held onto over time actually looks like.It is easier to scroll than to think about the deeper meaning of your life. It is easier to stay busy and distracted than to confess and repent. It is easier to dismiss God than to trust Him with your soul. The harder road is still worth it. The narrow gate leads to life, and there is no other way there than through Jesus Christ.I want to be one of the few who find it. And I want to help lead others to it too. Including the parts I have not figured out yet.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Today is the second anniversary of my brother Z's passing, and my verse for the day could not have been timed better. "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7.I used to be in a place where I hated life. I was depressed. I stayed because I was raising my son and told myself once he was raised I would be done too. That was my real thinking for a long time.Today I'm sitting in my prayer corner watching the sky move. Trees, clouds, that blue that only shows up on the good days. I miss my brother. Life is different without him, less funny, less entertaining. Every relationship leaves its own shape when it ends, and I'm learning to hold the sadness of losing him right next to the gratitude that I had him at all, even for a short time. I cry, and the tears carry both. Grief for the loss. Joy that I got to be his sister. Peace because I surrender to God and read His word daily, and that relationship is what carries me through days like this one.I love how a narrator from International Christian Center in Mombasa describes this kind of peace. Not surface level, not calm while everything churns underneath, but unshakable.Paul wrote these words from a prison cell, with no control, no comfort, and probably no idea whether he would walk out alive, and he had peace anyway. It reminds me of Peter in Acts 12, asleep in his cell the night before he was set to be executed, chained between two guards, sleeping so soundly an angel had to wake him up to get him out. Some of us can't sleep because a bill is due or a health scare has us spinning. Peter was hours from losing his life and slept like a baby. That is the peace we are offered, and I promise you it is real and available.I've been trying to remember the exact morning I first received it. I think it might have been the day I told God I was done. I laid on the bed, gave up, and before I could even hit the mattress I felt myself being lifted. The pressure came off my heart, my mind, my soul, all at once. I remember thinking about the way Joel Osteen talks about your troubles coming to an end, right in that moment. If that was the day, it might be the best day of my life, right alongside the day Jordan was born and the day I found out I was pregnant with him.A second devotional I read, Peace Beyond Anxiety, talks about how we are surrounded constantly by reasons to worry. Safety, conflict between people and countries, chaos in our own lives. Every time Jordan is out of my sight I think about his safety. I worry about my family's health, my friends' needs, the tension between people who can't get along. There is an endless supply of reasons to spiral.We get to choose. We can let those thoughts pull us into anxiety and overthinking, or we can submit them to God in prayer and remember He is the only one with the power to actually protect us. Guarding your thoughts and submitting them to God is easier to say than to do, and I don't think anyone fully explains what that looks like day to day. But when we do it, He gives us a peace that goes past anxiety and past whatever is happening in the world around us.Surrendering doesn't mean life suddenly goes smooth. When I was in the middle of a move, I had real anxiety. I questioned my decisions, missed deadlines, didn't have the money for things being asked of me. But I kept praising Him, kept reading His word, kept reminding myself of His promises, and that practice is what let peace win over the anxiety instead of the other way around.We don't have the power to change our circumstances or our own thoughts on our own. I've tried to handle things by myself and it always gets worse, never better. But when we hand Him our concerns, our anxiety, our depression, our shame, our guilt, our bitterness, He gives us peace in return. What a trade.So the next time you feel anxious, pause. Pray. Tell God exactly what you're feeling in that moment and let Him take it. He is always in control, and He is always with you.God offers a peace the world cannot give. That line deserves to be on a billboard.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

I was listening to a sermon the other day about Hosea and Gomer, and it wrecked me a little.Quick refresher if you get the names mixed up like I do. Hosea was a prophet. Gomer was the woman God told him to marry. And Gomer was not exactly wife of the year material. The Bible describes her as a woman of promiscuity. She kept cheating on Hosea. Over and over. He would take her back, she would leave again, chase after other men, and somehow he kept going back for her.The preacher broke it down like this. Hosea represents God. Gomer represents us.I sat there like, wait. What?Because here is my honest reaction. If I were Hosea, I would have let her go the first time. Maybe the second time if I was feeling generous. By the third time, I am done. Keep the ring. Keep whatever you want. I am not chasing you down.But that is exactly the point.We are Gomer more than we want to admit. We go looking for love, validation, security, and joy in everything except God. A relationship. A job title. A number on a scale. A follower count. Attention from somebody who was never going to stay. We keep running toward things that were never built to hold us, and every single time we come up empty. Then we go looking again. Different face, same pattern.And God, the one we keep chasing after everything else instead of Him, is the one saying no, do not let her go. Go get her back.Hosea 3 says God told him to go love his wife again, even though she was loved by another man and was an adulteress. God literally used Hosea's real marriage as a live picture so an entire nation could see what His love actually looks like. Not love that gives up when it gets disrespected. Love that goes and buys back what it never should have had to buy back in the first place.There is a Hebrew word for this kind of love. Chesed. It means loyal, covenant love. The kind that does not quit based on your behavior. It is not a feeling. It is a commitment. God's chesed toward Israel, and toward us, does not move just because we do.Here is what got me. Gomer did not clean herself up first. She did not earn her way back. Hosea went and got her while she was still in it. That is not a story about a woman getting her act together and then being welcomed home. That is a story about being bought back in the middle of the mess, before anything changed.I think about my own life and how many times I went looking for something to fill me up. Approval. Relationships. Achievement. All of it left me empty because none of it was built to sustain me. Only God fulfills that. Not because He is boring or the safe backup option. Because He is the only one who was never going to leave in the first place.The uncomfortable part of this story is not Gomer. It is Hosea. It is realizing that the one who had every right to walk away is the one who went and got her instead. That is not weakness. That is chesed. That is a love that keeps showing up even when it makes zero logical sense to.If you have been chasing something that keeps leaving you empty, this is your reminder. You do not have to get it together first. He is not waiting for you to clean up before He comes looking. He already came looking. He is still coming looking.Believe Him.Peace, Love and Joy always — Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

"Dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations." Psalm 22:28I know what it feels like to sit in the middle of a day where nothing is going right and ask God flat out, where are you.That was my Wednesday. I was in the middle of something that would not work out, frustrated, worn down, and I said it plainly. I feel alone. I need you. Where are you.I did not stay there.By the time I went to bed, or maybe when I woke up, I honestly do not remember which, something had shifted. I was praying. I love you, Lord. I am sorry. I know you are there with me. I know you love me. I trust you. I promise I do.I cannot tell you the exact moment it happened. I just know Thursday showed up and it was one of my best days. Friday followed right behind it.That is the part that gets me every time. It is not that the circumstances changed overnight. It is that something in me turned. It is like He reached over and flipped a switch, and I went from frustrated and lonely back to trusting, loving, and worshipping Him in what felt like no time at all.Psalm 22 does the same thing, and it does it in front of everybody.The psalm opens with words you have probably heard before, even if you did not know where they came from. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Jesus said those exact words from the cross. That is how real the ache in this psalm is. It does not open polished. It opens in pain, in confusion, in a feeling of complete abandonment.But by verse 28, the tone has completely turned. Dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. The Hebrew word behind dominion is melukah, which comes from the same root as the word for king. It means kingship, reign, royalty. David is not just saying God has power over Israel. He is saying every nation, every government, every system that looks like it is in control, still answers to Him.That is the same arc I lived this week. Start in the ache. Ask where He is. End in a declaration that He is still ruling, even over what feels unmanageable.Here is what I do not want you to miss. The switch flipping was not something I engineered. I did not talk myself into feeling better. I asked a real question in a real low moment, and He met me in it. That is the whole point of dominion. It does not depend on my grip on the situation. It depends on His authority over it.If you are in a Wednesday right now, frustrated, wondering if He sees what you are carrying, I want you to know the switch is real. It might not happen the moment you pray. It might happen while you sleep, or the second you wake up, or three days later. Dominion belongs to Him, and that means your situation is never outside of His reach, even on the days it feels like it is.You do not have to fake your way out of the ache to get to the trust. Say where you actually are. Let Him meet you there. Then watch what He does with the days that come next.Peace, Love and Joy always.Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Today is the second anniversary of my brother Z's passing, and my verse for the day could not have been timed better. "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7.I used to be in a place where I hated life. I was depressed. I stayed because I was raising my son and told myself once he was raised I would be done too. That was my real thinking for a long time.Today I'm sitting in my prayer corner watching the sky move. Trees, clouds, that blue that only shows up on the good days. I miss my brother. Life is different without him, less funny, less entertaining. Every relationship leaves its own shape when it ends, and I'm learning to hold the sadness of losing him right next to the gratitude that I had him at all, even for a short time. I cry, and the tears carry both. Grief for the loss. Joy that I got to be his sister. Peace because I surrender to God and read His word daily, and that relationship is what carries me through days like this one.I love how a narrator from International Christian Center in Mombasa describes this kind of peace. Not surface level, not calm while everything churns underneath, but unshakable.Paul wrote these words from a prison cell, with no control, no comfort, and probably no idea whether he would walk out alive, and he had peace anyway. It reminds me of Peter in Acts 12, asleep in his cell the night before he was set to be executed, chained between two guards, sleeping so soundly an angel had to wake him up to get him out. Some of us can't sleep because a bill is due or a health scare has us spinning. Peter was hours from losing his life and slept like a baby. That is the peace we are offered, and I promise you it is real and available.I've been trying to remember the exact morning I first received it. I think it might have been the day I told God I was done. I laid on the bed, gave up, and before I could even hit the mattress I felt myself being lifted. The pressure came off my heart, my mind, my soul, all at once. I remember thinking about the way Joel Osteen talks about your troubles coming to an end, right in that moment. If that was the day, it might be the best day of my life, right alongside the day Jordan was born and the day I found out I was pregnant with him.A second devotional I read, Peace Beyond Anxiety, talks about how we are surrounded constantly by reasons to worry. Safety, conflict between people and countries, chaos in our own lives. Every time Jordan is out of my sight I think about his safety. I worry about my family's health, my friends' needs, the tension between people who can't get along. There is an endless supply of reasons to spiral.We get to choose. We can let those thoughts pull us into anxiety and overthinking, or we can submit them to God in prayer and remember He is the only one with the power to actually protect us. Guarding your thoughts and submitting them to God is easier to say than to do, and I don't think anyone fully explains what that looks like day to day. But when we do it, He gives us a peace that goes past anxiety and past whatever is happening in the world around us.Surrendering doesn't mean life suddenly goes smooth. When I was in the middle of a move, I had real anxiety. I questioned my decisions, missed deadlines, didn't have the money for things being asked of me. But I kept praising Him, kept reading His word, kept reminding myself of His promises, and that practice is what let peace win over the anxiety instead of the other way around.We don't have the power to change our circumstances or our own thoughts on our own. I've tried to handle things by myself and it always gets worse, never better. But when we hand Him our concerns, our anxiety, our depression, our shame, our guilt, our bitterness, He gives us peace in return. What a trade.So the next time you feel anxious, pause. Pray. Tell God exactly what you're feeling in that moment and let Him take it. He is always in control, and He is always with you.God offers a peace the world cannot give. That line deserves to be on a billboard.Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

Colossians 3:12 says God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, should clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.I love this verse. I take it to mean basically what it says. When we carry ourselves filled with those five things, we represent God well.Two words in that verse carry more weight than they get credit for: holy and dearly loved.Holy means set apart. It means you belong to God, chosen and marked as His, with a purpose for you that nobody else can carry the same way.And He didn't just say loved. He said dearly loved. Adding "dearly" changes the whole sentence. It moves you from being loved in general to being loved specifically, personally, on purpose.If you have ever been told you are not worthy, not valuable, not enough, not impressive enough, not powerful enough, that you don't have enough followers or enough likes, here is what's true underneath all of that noise: you are more than enough. When you know who you are, when you know better, you do better. You feel better. You love better. You live better.This feels like a public service announcement: you are called, you are named, you are chosen, by the Creator, the Sustainer, the Redeemer. The narrator Hosanna Wong reminds us we are holy and set apart, and that we should embody the values of Jesus, giving people grace instead of treating them like they're below us.So how do you actually clothe yourself in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? You start with your struggles. Think about what keeps you from living more like Jesus, then replace it with the opposite action.If you're sarcastic and cutting, choose something kind and encouraging instead.If you come across harsh, choose to do something that requires gentleness.If you're holding a grudge, make the decision to extend forgiveness.Alongside that, take part in whatever builds you up spiritually. Read His word. Connect with others. Spend time with people who keep you accountable in a positive way. Keep scriptures close that you can remind yourself of and apply to your life.This works like anything else you want to accomplish. Practice makes perfect. Pursue it. Live it. And give yourself grace when you fall short, because you're not perfect. No one is. We're all going to make mistakes.Pray and ask God to help you. I believe with all my heart you will see the change, because I've seen it in my own life. It's daily. It's the intentionality in clothing yourself and doing what's right, treating people the way He treats us. That intentionality is what it takes to build any habit into your daily life.It starts with receiving and accepting Jesus' unconditional love so you can reflect that love to others: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.Today is a good day to think about what it looks like for you to embody those traits. Make note of your struggles. Start small, with one or two that give you the most trouble, and make a plan to replace them with actions that draw you closer to Jesus. Start in prayer, asking for His strength, then work on each trait slowly and with intention. Stay fully committed, and in time those traits will come naturally to you.When you know who you are, it changes how you live. You are a child of the Most High God. You are holy. You are dearly loved. Let that be what you carry into today.Peace, Love and Joy always.Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com

"Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 34:14 NIVWhen I first read this verse, it seemed obvious. This is what we all should be doing, right? Turn from evil, do good, seek peace. Nothing complicated about it.Then the devotional pointed out something that made me want to dig deeper. David gives us four things to do in this one verse, and the fourth one is the surprise. Peace must be pursued. That means peace is something you have to chase, and the reason is one I had never considered before. Pride, anger, and selfishness do not die on their own. You have to put in actual work to have peace, and you have to keep putting in work to keep it.It went further. When Jesus was here on earth, He actively pursued peace, and He pursued reconciliation between God and man. I had never thought about it that way, and it made me think of accounting. When you reconcile the books, you get them balanced. That is exactly what Jesus did for us. We were deep in the negative, and we could not pull ourselves out of the dumpster we put ourselves in. So He balanced the books by dying for our sins so we could actually have a relationship with God.The devotional I read, Reconciled for a Purpose, compared this to solving a math problem. When I was in school, you never got credit for just writing the answer. You had to show how you got there. The same is true here. If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, it is one thing to know that reconciliation is the answer to the disunity and injustice around us. It is another thing to actively engage in the actual process of reconciliation. The devotional called it the hard but good, messy yet beautiful, worth it kind of work, and I can definitely agree with that.Here is what makes this personal for every believer. Second Corinthians 5:11 through 21 says that every believer is a minister of reconciliation, empowered by God Himself. That includes you and me. And Psalm 34:14 gives us the steps for how to do it.Step one: turn from evil and do good. This means rejecting evil outwardly and addressing it inwardly, within our own hearts. We confess the sin that has put us in conflict with God and with other people, and we turn from our old ways.Step two: seek peace and pursue it. Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the presence of restored harmony. When we seek peace, we become more than peacemakers. We become active participants in the process of restoration. We listen empathetically. We strive for understanding. We see the brokenness around us and we put in the work, because the kingdom is worth it.And here is the part that takes the pressure off. Jesus already accomplished the work of reconciliation when He died on the cross. This is a process we have been invited into, and God is reconciling the world to Himself through it.So the question is simple. Will we join Him?Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I caught the second half of a message this week. Missed the entire beginning. And the half I heard still would not leave me alone.Here is the part that got me. Everyone has been given the opportunity to influence people. Everyone. Not just people with a following, a corner office, a pulpit, or a blue checkmark. Everyone, regardless of career, age, or title. God placed each of us in this generation on purpose to leave a mark, and He empowers us to lead with character and integrity from the inside out.Yesterday was World Population Day. Over eight billion people on this planet. And you are one of them, alive right now, in this generation, in your city, in your family, in your work. That was not random. Out of every generation God could have placed you in, He chose this one. You are here for such a time as this (Esther 4:14).So the question the message left me with is the one I want to leave with you. What are you going to do with the opportunity He has given you to be here right now?WHO ARE YOU INFLUENCING ALREADY?Maybe you hear the word influence and think it belongs to other people. People with platforms. Let me push back on that. Somebody is watching how you handle the meeting that went sideways. Your kids are watching what you do when the money gets tight. The person who rang you up at the store will remember whether you treated them like a person or a transaction. That is influence. It has been yours the whole time.Jesus said it in Matthew 5:14-16. You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others so they see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Present tense. You are. No audience required.CHARACTER COMES FIRSTHere is the part that keeps it honest. Influence without character is just noise. The message said God empowers us to lead with character and integrity from the inside out, and our actions come from that. Read that order again. Inside first. Actions second. God builds character in us through time with Him, and then it shows up in the way we live without us having to announce it.That is the difference between talking and walking. Anybody can post the verse. Anybody can say the right thing in the group chat. Walking it means the version of you that shows up when nobody is recording matches the one who shows up when everybody is.ABOUT THAT UNEASINESSIf you feel restless where you are right now, pay attention to it before you rush to quiet it. Sometimes that restlessness is a glimpse. God may be showing you the edge of what He wants you to pursue. I have lived this. The discomfort I felt in seasons I assumed were permanent turned out to be Him getting my attention.WHAT TO DO WITH ITHere is what I am doing with this, and what I invite you to do too. Ask yourself three questions this week.Who is in my sphere of influence right now, no title required?Does my walk match my talk with those people?What is one thing I can do this week with the opportunity God gave me to be here, in this generation?You were created for a reason. You were placed here on purpose. Come as you are, and let Him work the rest out from the inside.Peace, Love and Joy always | Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

Twice in the past few months I went through something hard, and both times I noticed the same pattern. The first things I lost were my peace and my joy. Worry moved in. Anxiety moved in. Mistrust moved in. I had to work my way back through it, and this morning's scripture named exactly what was happening. "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." Ephesians 1:7 NIV The narrator from North Palm Worship opened with a question that got me immediately. Have you noticed that joy is the first thing to go when you are going through something? She shared that Paul wrote this to the church at Ephesus because he noticed the same thing, and this verse was his reminder to them of who they are. She is right. From my own experience, peace and joy are the first things you lose when you stop trusting Him, when you allow doubt and unbelief to enter your mind. Redemption is now one of my favorite words. Thanks be to God. Here is what it means in plain language. The Greek word is apolytrosis, which means release by the payment of a ransom. Redemption is being bought back and set free. When I first read the verse, I thought of it as another chance, and it is that. And it is more. Jesus paid the full price on the cross, so the debt of everything in your past is settled. You get another chance because the payment already cleared. Then the verse says forgiveness comes "in accordance with the riches of God's grace." That phrase is about measure. God forgives according to how rich His grace is, and His grace is endless. His grace renews for us every day. Your forgiveness is sized by His abundance, and that supply refreshes every single morning. The narrator reminded us that this verse says we have been set free from shame, guilt, sin, and the weight of our past. Because Jesus paid the price on the cross, we are free and we are forgiven. Failure is fully covered, and God has lavished us with grace that refreshes daily. Here is why that matters. Our joy returns to us when we remember what He has done for us, when we worship Him in the middle of it. I have lived this. In those two recent struggles, worry, anxiety, and mistrust replaced my peace and joy, and as I began to stop questioning Him and worship Him again, the joy came back. I got my peace back. It is the best feeling ever. The enemy wants you in regret. He wants you replaying your failures on a loop. God says worship in response to that. That is when the joy starts to come back, when there is a fresh remembrance that the chains have been broken, that you have been forgiven and set free, and that His grace is better than anything in your past. The devotional I read, The Center of Salvation, points out that the core of our Christian faith is found in the power of salvation achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus is a reminder of it. Because Jesus was perfect, He was able to sacrifice Himself for us so we could have forgiveness of sins and a relationship with God. His death and resurrection covered every sin, past, present, and future, and now nothing can separate us from the love God has for us. Think about that. The Creator of the world, who has all the power, gave up His own Son so we could be free of the many mistakes we make daily. And it gets better. He wants the relationship. He delights in it. He enters it gladly and on purpose. That knowledge alone should make us feel joyful and at peace. So here is the question the devotional left me with, and I am handing it to you. Are you allowing Jesus' sacrifice to set you free, or are you allowing the devil to keep reminding you of your mistakes? Take a moment today to cultivate your relationship with God. Remind yourself of His promises. Thank Him for everything He has done and everything He is going to do. Ask Him to fill you with the knowledge of His love and His grace so you can love others the way He loves you and be the disciple you were meant to be. Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com

I am on day 191 of reading the Bible in a year with The Bible Recap, and today I read something that made me want to dig deeper.It is in Isaiah 5. God tells a story about a vineyard. He picked a fertile hill. He cleared out the stones. He planted the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle of it and carved out a wine vat, because He fully expected it to produce good grapes. Then He asks a question that reads like it came straight from His heart:"What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?" Isaiah 5:4Verse 7 tells us plainly that the vineyard is His people. God planted them, protected them, and provided everything they could possibly need, and they still produced wild grapes. They still broke covenant with Him. When He asks what more He could have done, it reads like He is asking how He was not enough.Here is something I noticed when I dug deeper. Isaiah opens the chapter by calling it a song for the one he loves. Before any of the hurt shows up, this chapter begins as a love song. That framing matters. This is God singing about people He loves who walked away from Him.When I read it, it felt so sincere and so passionate. And underneath all of it, I heard hurt. Real hurt. The Creator of the world, our Sustainer, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, sounds betrayed. It is like He is saying, I have given you everything. I have done everything for you. And still you are not loyal to me.Here is the part that amazed me. If it were me, I would have an ego about it. I would be proud. I would be arrogant and pissed, and I would want everyone to feel the full weight of what they did to me. And God could do exactly that. He could destroy all of us with a word.Instead, He sounds hurt. Distraught, even. I say this with complete respect: He almost sounds needy. He wants us to want to be with Him. The most powerful being in existence is standing in front of people who can do nothing without Him, asking why they will not treat Him the way He deserves. And then He turns around and says He is going to save them anyway.He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the King of Humble.That changed something in me. I am so happy that my eyes have finally been opened and my heart has finally opened, because I want to be with Him too. And I want to be clear about what I mean. I want to be with Him, not just for things. I want to be in the relationship itself. It is the best relationship I have ever had. There are improvements I could make, and I want to make them. I want to cultivate this relationship, honor it better, and give it the attention it deserves.If you have ever pictured God as distant, cold, or waiting to punish you, read Isaiah 5 again and listen to His tone. That is a God who is passionate about you. He has already done everything. The invitation to come as you are is still open, and He is still saying I am going to save you.Peace, Love and Joy always.Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com