Instagram story viewer> @kaylanorrisart> Posts

Kayla Norris

@kaylanorrisart

520

followers

199

following

I like putting words and pictures together.
✏️Verses & Visual Notetaking
📍Harpenden, England
✉️ Subscribe to monthly devotional👇🏼

POSTS STORIES REELS

I didn’t know when I’d walk normally again.

That’s where Psalm 34:4 comes in.

✉️

💻 Subscribe to Bible-verse-of-the-month devotional email at kaylanorris.com/calendar or wait for the occasional excerpts to hit Instagram (it’s not guaranteed monthly but it’s often).

Love you all 🫶🏼 by @kaylanorrisart

“In this world you will have tribulation...”

It’s not the promise I want to hear.

It’s the passover meal, and Jesus is teaching like he’s never taught us before. Spilling his heart across the table, splashing it across our plates.

“In this world you will have tribulation...”

He’s promised many things before. Comfort, healing, protection. Now... trouble?

I mean, we’ve seen it. No surprises there. “Messiah” didn’t come with “easy” attached to it. We know this. We’re under Roman occupation. This is war. Of course there will be trouble.

“But take heart, I have overcome the world.”

Wait. He didn’t say he’s overcome the Romans. He didn’t say occupation or war or taxes or oppression. He said the world?

“In this world you will have tribulations...”

I don’t understand.

I don’t think I want to understand.

But then I look up from my plate.

His eyes.

Those same eyes, the eyes that pierced my soul the day we met

(and every day since).

His eyes are sad...

triumphant...

and kind.

Always kind.

And this I know:

I don’t have to understand.

Not tonight.

🤍 by @kaylanorrisart

note to self: less scrolling, more doodling by @kaylanorrisart

You’re not facing your battle alone. 🤎 by @kaylanorrisart

🏆 = Yours by @kaylanorrisart

It’s estimated that one million fans flooded the streets of London for the @arsenal victory parade.

It’s England. It’s what happens when a football club wins the Premier League title for the first time in 22 years.

Red jerseys poured through every street corner, chanting, cheering, waiting for the bus—even though Arsenal had just lost their European final the night before (in a penalty shoot-out, which was heart-wrenching).

But the fans didn’t change their mind.

They were there to celebrate VICTORY.

—

I’ve always considered myself good at celebrating.

This morning we hung a piñata for my friend’s birthday at work and laughed our heads off when the candy exploded across our office floor (and our computers managed to get by unscathed!).

I know how to celebrate, right? Birthdays, anniversaries, trophies. All of it, right?

Well, I know how to celebrate the OBVIOUS victories.

But:

“The Lord sees not as man sees... the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)

And some victories aren’t so obvious.

—

Since I finished sabbatical and returned to full-time ministry, it’s been easy to revert back to “normal”. Normal schedule. Normal role. Normal life. I started to forget how far I’ve really come. How, just six months ago, I was still struggling to do more than a couple of hours of media work a day.

But today—walking into my office is not just normal life.

It’s a victory.

—

I had so much FOMO when I saw all the footage of the parade. But even just seeing the Instagram posts taught me what celebration looks like, on a whole new level.

And I want to celebrate what God has done for me like those Arsenal fans celebrating on the streets of London.

Wild. Crazy. Joyful. Chanting their own original songs (my favorite one was “we want our baby back, we want our baby back” to the parents who presented their baby to the crowds from an apartment window).

God has been so good to me, and I don’t want to forget it. I want to commemorate what He’s done, how far we’ve come together.

So, this month, will you join me?

Let’s celebrate the little and the big...

for He has triumphed gloriously. by @kaylanorrisart

notes lately 📝✨

These last few weeks have been packed with incredible messages—here’s some highlights so far!

🙏🏼 Thank you @petehughes @woleagbaje @sarahyardley @charl.harman @duduvieira1 by @kaylanorrisart

He’s equipped you for your battle today.

Don’t be afraid.

He’s with you.

#2026calendar by @kaylanorrisart

How do you overcome?

Oh, I can repeat it, verbatim.

“By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony”.

I’ve known this verse for a couple decades. I use it in my teaching, regularly.

But there’s a difference between being able to quote a verse perfectly—and doing it.

I write this from a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Raleigh, North Carolina. If you told me a month ago that my UK visa still wouldn’t have been processed and I’d find myself in four different US states within the last two weeks, I wouldn’t have believed you. Or, I wouldn’t have wanted to believe you.

But our journeys—and our battles—often lead us down unexpected roads.

And today? I’m challenged afresh to remember:

I overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony.

✉️ Read full devotional in your inbox—subscribe in bio. 🖤 by @kaylanorrisart

“Oral storytelling, folklore, myths, tales, parables, fables—these are the building blocks of human culture.

And the best stories are told not by one great master, but by multiple scribes and orators, generation after generation, layering each successive version atop each other, refining and tweaking, reinventing and alchemising…”

— A.A. Kostas

I had the privilege of co-writing and illustrating this small collection of stories on @substack earlier this year—and it’s finally here!

Read “A Story of Stories: A Woven Tale” on Waymarkers now.

📚 by @kaylanorrisart

“The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.”

— Exodus 14:14

March monthly devotional is just around the corner! Subscribe now at @kaylanorrisart ✉️ by @kaylanorrisart

“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the giants there...”

— Deuteronomy 1:28

All valid concerns, to say the least. Formidable enemies. Ironclad cities. Giants.

The Israelites come back from spying out the Promised Land and it’s not a pretty picture. They can’t just walk in on their own accord. They have to do something. They have to trust.

This is what Moses tells them (Deut. 1:29-31):

“Do not be in dread or afraid of them.
The LORD your God who goes before you
will himself fight for you,
just as he did for you in Egypt
before your eyes,
and in the wilderness,
where you have seen
how the LORD your God carried you,
as a man carries his son,
all the way that you went
until you came to this place.”

What happens is heart-breaking, though.

“Yet in spite of this word,” it says (verse 32), the Israelites did not believe in God’s ability to bring breakthrough and to carry them to the Promised Land.

Only Joshua and Caleb, the spies who gave a faith-filled report, were the ones from that generation allowed in, decades later.

But this is why we’ve been given these stories.

The Bible shows us: that doesn’t have to be our story.

What are you believing for? What are you waiting and longing for? What have you been you praying, praying, and praying for?

(It matters).

Has anything disappointed you along the way? Or scared you? Is there anything stopping you from moving forward?

(It matters, too).

This is not the end of your story.

This month, it’s my prayer that you receive fresh strength to trust and know:

The Lord your God goes before you.

He will fight for you.

💪🏽

🎉

✉️ Thank you for being here! Subscribe at @kaylanorrisart or DM me to get every monthly devotional straight to your inbox. Love you all 💕 by @kaylanorrisart