How is Your Word of the Year?

Earlier this past week I was blessed to meet with my friend and fellow blogger Nathan, Time for Providence, in the coffee shop at Watermark Community Church. It’s one of my favorite places for meet-ups because it’s almost always teeming with life.

Nathan mentioned he had been reviewing his word for 2026 and noticed how it had morphed and possibly branched off into a couple of other words.

This related to my experience as well.

Stay

At the beginning of 2026, my word for the year was stay. I hunkered down in my cave, hidden in the wilderness, where God shaped and molded me as I healed and recovered.

Word of the Year 2026: Stay

Stay morphed into wait before turning into remain.

It was clear, the Lord was not done with me yet.

You can read 1 Kings 19 here.

Wait

The word wait is reassurance that this too shall pass and that what the Lord has planned for me next will become apparent in due time.

Yes, it’s trying and involves quite a bit of work. But waiting on the Lord is very much worth it. God’s Word in Isaiah serves as a good reminder of the critical role waiting plays in our walk with the Lord.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah‬ ‭40‬:‭30‬-‭31‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/59/isa.40.30-31.ESV

Remain

Remain is about faithfulness, pure and simple. Don’t waver, I hear the Holy Spirit telling me. Stay the course. Trust me, I hear the Lord saying.

We see this commitment to faithfulness play out in John 17 as Jesus prays after the Last Supper, probably in the Upper Room, or on the way to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane.

Read John 17 here.

Friends, I am not retired or fading away. That would be like going to the locker room during the second half hydration break, packing my bags, and going home.

I’ve worked hard to get here and I plan on sticking around to use what I have learned and earned to advance the Kingdom of God as an ambassador for Christ, hallelujah.