Daily Prayer: Holding On While You Wait
Daily Prayer: Holding On While You Wait
"You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near."
— James 5:8
I noticed the coffee was still hot when I got back to it.
That probably sounds small. It is small. But if you've ever set a mug down to answer a question, sign something, or locate a missing phone charger — and then returned to it twenty minutes later to find it lukewarm — you understand why a still-hot cup of coffee feels like a minor gift.
I stood there for a second and just appreciated it. That's it. That was the whole moment.
The Waiting We Don't Notice
I've been thinking lately about how much of life is just... waiting. Not dramatic waiting. Not the kind you write about. The ordinary kind — waiting for a work email to come through, waiting to hear back from my adult daughter about weekend plans, waiting for my husband to finish a sentence he started three rooms away and is now completing at full volume from the hallway.
(I love him. He does this constantly.)
Most of the time I don't even register that I'm waiting. It's just the texture of the day — little pauses stitched between things.
But James 5:8 caught me this week. Be patient and stand firm. It's not a suggestion for people in crisis. It feels like something said to regular people, living regular lives, who are quietly holding on for something they can't quite see yet.
Standing Firm Looks Pretty Ordinary From Here
I used to picture "standing firm" as something heroic. Feet planted. Jaw set. Facing something enormous.
I think it's actually more like just... not letting go. Not dramatically. Just continuing. Continuing to show up for work. Continuing to text my daughter even when I'm not sure she needs me the way she used to. Continuing to make dinner and sit across from my husband and ask how his day went and actually mean it.
Continuing to believe that God is near, even on the days that feel completely unremarkable.
Especially on those days, maybe.
Near Doesn't Always Feel Near
I'll be honest — "the Lord's coming is near" is the part of this verse I hold a little loosely. Not because I doubt it, but because near is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and I am not always sure what it means inside the span of a Tuesday afternoon.
What I do know is that the nearness James is talking about changes how you wait. It's not passive. It's not resigned. It's more like the way you sit up a little straighter when you know someone you love is almost at the door. You're still just sitting there, but something in you is attentive.
I want to be more like that. Attentive. Not anxious — just paying attention.
The Hot Coffee Was Enough
I think patience, the real kind, isn't white-knuckling your way through something hard. It's more like learning to be present inside the wait. Finding the small things worth noticing — the coffee still hot, the afternoon light coming in sideways through the kitchen window, the sound of my husband laughing at something in another room.
These things don't fix anything. They don't need to. They're just true, and they're good, and I think noticing them is its own kind of standing firm.
I'm still learning how to do that. Some days I'm better at it than others.
But I'm still here. Still holding on. And according to James, that counts for something.
A Prayer for Today
God, I don't always feel like I'm doing anything significant when I'm just going through the motions of an ordinary day. But I think you already know that, and I think you're here anyway. Help me to be patient — not in a gritted-teeth way, but in a genuinely trusting way. Help me stand firm without being rigid. And remind me, on the days it's hard to feel it, that near is still true even when it doesn't feel close. Thank you for the small things I almost missed today. I want to miss fewer of them. Amen.
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