Stepping out of our comfort zone and walking by faith means to follow God's calling.
Walking with the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is opening your heart and seeing daily miracles.
I mean what I say. You don't step out of your comfort and find yourself alone. The Comforter is with you always. 🙏
The third night at Beauvoir. And Smith brings Le a verse that has been sitting at the bottom of every page of this journal since the first entry.
The footer reads: "His mercies are new every morning." That is Lamentations 3:22-23. Tonight's verse is two lines further down the same page.
Read them together: His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness... The LORD is good unto them that wait for him. The mercies are new each morning — and the one who waits is there to receive them.
And consider who wrote it. Jeremiah — the man Smith names as delivered "from the dungeon." Jeremiah 38: let down by ropes into a cistern, and in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. Pulled out with old rags under his arms.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him was not written by a man in comfort. It was written by a man who had waited in the mud.
And Le answers with a turn worth keeping: step out of the comfort zone — and walk with the Comforter.
The English word earns it. Comfort comes from the Latin con-fortis — "with strength." The Comforter was never a cushion. He is strength for leaving the cushion.
The comfort zone stays put. The Comforter walks.
"The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. But He is especially kind and attentive to the praying, waiting soul... He bids us ask, promises to bestow, makes us wait, and then blesses us indeed."
James Smith · On Lamentations 3:25"He bids us ask, promises to bestow, makes us wait, and then blesses us indeed." Four steps, and Smith does not skip the third. Makes us wait. The waiting is not a delay in the plan. It is in the plan.
"Wait" — qavah. The word means to stretch a cord tight — to hold in tension, expecting. Isaiah 40:31 uses it: they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength. And Smith says it a paragraph later: He will renew our strength.
Not idle waiting. A taut line, held toward Him.
"We have proved Him to be good... He delivered David from the horrible pit; Jeremiah from the dungeon; Daniel from the lions; Peter from the waves; and Paul from the forty Jews."
James Smith · On Lamentations 3:25Five deliverances — and every one of them happened at the bottom of something.
David from the horrible pit — Psalm 40: I waited patiently for the LORD... he brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay. The psalm opens with the same verb as tonight's verse: waited.
Jeremiah from the dungeon — the author of tonight's verse, out of the mire.
Daniel from the lions — a night in the den, the stone sealed.
Peter from the waves — Lord, save me, and immediately the hand.
Paul from the forty — Acts 23: forty men under an oath not to eat until they had killed him. Discovered by Paul's young nephew, who happened to overhear. God's deliverance came through a boy in a corridor.
Le — September 17, the tire: you are parked in front of a car repair shop. Deliverance often arrives as the ordinary person standing in the right place.
"The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."
Nahum 1:7 · KJV"A strong hold in the day of trouble." Last night, Psalm 91: my refuge and my fortress. And Psalm 91:15: I will be with him in trouble. Not a stronghold for peaceful days. For the day of trouble.
"He knoweth them that trust in him." Psalm 142, the song Le woke with: então conheceste a minha vereda. 1 Corinthians 13:12: then shall I know even as also I am known. Before we trust Him well, He already knows us fully.
"He will renew our strength, illumine our path, take vengeance on our foes, and introduce us into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Let us wait for Him in faith, look for Him in hope, and plead with Him to work in us all the good pleasure of His will, and the work of faith with power. Wait for the Lord — and prove Him good."
James Smith · On Lamentations 3:25Smith is quoting Le's own recent readings back to her, almost line by line.
"The glorious liberty of the children of God" — Romans 8:21, which Le read at Henvic, at the end of the earth. And children of God — her own words a week ago: we are God's children, and He takes care of us.
"All the good pleasure of His will, and the work of faith with power" — 2 Thessalonians 1:11, word for word. Le read 2 Thessalonians two nights ago. And good pleasure is Philippians 2:13: it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
"Wait for the Lord — and prove Him good." Not believe He is good. Prove it — test it by waiting, and find it true. Psalm 34:8: O taste and see that the LORD is good. 🙏
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." — John 14:16
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." — John 14:18
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." — 2 Corinthians 5:7
KJV"Another Comforter." Allon paraklēton. Paraklētos — "the one called alongside." Not ahead, not behind. Beside. And another — allos, another of the same kind. Jesus walked beside the disciples; the Spirit walks beside us the same way.
"I will not leave you comfortless." Ouk aphēsō hymas orphanous — "I will not leave you orphans." Two verses after promising the Comforter, Jesus says what Le said tonight: you don't step out of your comfort and find yourself alone. She meant every word. So did He.
"That he may abide with you for ever." Psalm 91 last night: the shelter that never moves, whatever field you lodge in. The Comforter is that shelter, travelling.
"We walk by faith, not by sight." Le has been living this verse since August. The apartment sold. Portugal behind. A new country, a new language, a different field each night. Hebrews 11:8, of Abraham: he went out, not knowing whither he went. That is what following God's calling looks like from the inside.
"Opening your heart and seeing daily miracles." Le, September 7: the heart is the connector. And daily is exactly the word of tonight's footer — new every morning. The miracles were never rationed to rare occasions. They come with the mercies, each morning, to the heart that is open. September 17: we saw God's hand all the way. 🙏
"Stepping out of our comfort zone and walking by faith means to follow God's calling. Walking with the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is opening your heart and seeing daily miracles."
Le · Beauvoir, Mont-Saint-Michel · October 4, 2026 · The comfort zone stays put. The Comforter walks — con-fortis, with strengthNew Every Morning
The journal's footer is Lamentations 3:23. Tonight's verse is two lines below it — the mercies come; the one who waits receives them.
Qavah — the Taut Line
To wait is to stretch a cord tight toward Him. Not idle. Expecting. They that wait shall renew their strength.
From the Bottom
Pit, dungeon, den, waves, ambush. Every deliverance on Smith's list began at the bottom of something.
Comfort Zone, Comforter
Con-fortis — with strength. Not a cushion but strength to leave it. Paraklētos, the one who walks alongside.