Archive for September 2026
The Power of Waiting: Trusting God’s Timing
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” — Psalm 27:14
I don’t particularly like waiting. I don’t think most of us do. When I pray about something, I would prefer God to answer somewhere between “Amen” and the moment I open my eyes. Instead, sometimes God says, Wait. And waiting can feel an awful lot like nothing is happening.
Throughout Scripture, God did some of His greatest work during seasons of waiting – while Joseph waited in prison, David waited to become king, Abraham and Sarah waited for a child, the Israelites waited for deliverance, the disciples waited for the Holy Spirit, and so on and so on.
During these times, waiting wasn’t wasted time, but it wasn’t easy on those who were waiting. God was working in places they couldn’t see.
I’ve been waiting for quite a while for God to answer a prayer I pray for twenty times a day, and it’s been years. I don’t see even the slightest move toward an answer. Waiting is the only action that seems to be happening.
That’s the difficult part for us. We can usually trust God when we can see Him moving. Faith becomes harder when heaven seems silent. While we don’t understand what is going on, if we trust God, it really isn’t for us to understand. God’s silence is not God’s absence.
There are things He may be arranging that we know nothing about. Hearts He is changing. Doors He is preparing. Circumstances He is moving. And sometimes the work He is doing while we wait isn’t around us at all. Sometimes it is inside us.
So if you’re waiting today, keep praying, keep believing, keep doing what you know is right. You don’t have to understand the delay to trust the One who holds the answer. One day you may look back and realize that while you thought nothing was happening, God was putting everything into place.
The answer may not have come yet, but never doubt, it is on the way.
— Nora
Finding Joy in Ordinary Days
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” — Psalm 118:24
We spend a lot of our lives waiting for something – the vacation, the celebration, the answer to prayer, the big opportunity, the day when things finally settle down. Meanwhile, life is happening on an ordinary Tuesday.
Life is happening over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table or while folding towels. It’s happening in the carpool line, at the grocery store, feeding the dog, answering emails, and figuring out what in the world everybody is going to eat for supper.
We can become so focused on the extraordinary moments that we overlook the sacredness of ordinary ones.
My husband, Rolando, is the best at ordinary, every day, minute-by-minute life, and he is grateful for each and every one. He once told me, “I’d watch paint dry if it meant I could be with you.”
When we are working in the garden, he will look over at me and whisper, “I’m so grateful for this time with you and the jalapeños that will surely grow soon.”
Jesus gave us this example throughout His earthly life. Before the miracles and crowds, there were years of ordinary days – family meals, carpentry work, conversations, worship, and relationships. God was present in all of it, and He is present in ours.
Maybe today doesn’t look particularly exciting. Maybe there is nothing circled on your calendar. Maybe nobody is coming to visit, and nothing remarkable is expected to happen.
But you’re here. There are people to love, small kindnesses to give, laughter you haven’t heard yet, and work worth doing.
There is a God who has already stepped into this ordinary day ahead of you.
Sometimes the greatest blessings of our lives are disguised as completely ordinary days.
Don’t hurry through today waiting for something better. Look around. God is already here.
— Nora
Embrace New Beginnings: Daily Grace from God
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.” — Lamentations 3:22–23
Sometimes we get off track. I miss a day, then another. Something I intended to do gets pushed aside because life gets busy, somebody needs us, circumstances change — or I simply get tired and admit, “I will do it later.”
My foster son asked me seven times yesterday to throw the baseball with him. I kept responding, “You got it, buddy. Let me finish this and we’ll do it.” By 9:00p.m., he had stopped asking and it was dark. I told him how sorry I was that we did not get to throw. He smiled and answered, “We can tomorrow!”
There are days when I don’t know if it will happen tomorrow. I start thinking about how far behind I am in my job, writing books, and the demands from others, which seem to pile higher and higher, and of course, I want to exercise and eat right, dress right, and fix my hair. Before long, the overwhelming resolve creeps in to ring loud and clear, “I just can’t do this.”
But this morning, I was reminded of something wonderfully simple:
God is not asking me to go backward and fix yesterday – He is giving me today.
There is so much grace in that. I have a tendency to believe that starting over requires some grand moment: a Monday, a new month, a new year, or a perfectly organized plan.
God tells us that His mercies are new every morning. Which makes it very clear, not every January or Birthday but every morning. There is such comfort in that.
Maybe there is something you’ve let slip. Maybe it’s prayer or time in God’s Word. Maybe it’s taking care of yourself, reaching out to someone you love, going back to church, or pursuing something God placed on your heart a long time ago.
Don’t spend another moment beating yourself up over yesterday – just begin again. Pick up your Bible. Say the prayer. Make the phone call. Take the walk. Write the first sentence. Do the next right thing.
God has always been in the business of new beginnings. He doesn’t need our lives to be perfectly organized before He can work in them. He simply asks us to come as we are.
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts of faith is knowing that as long as God gives us another morning, He has given us another opportunity to begin again.
Today is enough and it began with a baseball, two gloves, a little laughter, and happy young boy who just wants to be a professional player one day.
— Nora
notesbynora 