{all images are gifts for you to use and share however you’d like}
Dear You,
As women we’re so vulnerable to expectations, aren’t we? We carry checklists around in our purses and even more in our hearts. On them we silently write what we believe it will take to be the perfect friend, wife, daughter, Christian, woman. We work so hard to keep up, and yet at the end of the day it’s never done.
What if we decided together to shred those expectations? We can, you know. Because here’s a little secret: expectations are nothing more than the modern-day version of living under the law. And you are no longer under the law. You are under grace.
Grace that replaces those lists with love. Grace that sees past our efforts to our hearts. Grace that invites us not to routines and regulations but to a relationship.
We don’t have to prove ourselves. We have already been declared “approved” by God. Not because of how “good” we are but because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. All the laws, all the expectations, were nailed there with him. And when he rose again three days later, we were declared to be free forever.
You are accepted. I am accepted. And love is no longer a reward for our behavior but instead a gift offered by nail-scarred hands. So let’s drop the lists we’re clutching and cling to what he longs to bring to our lives instead.
Wherever you are right now, take a deep, slow breath. Let it out again, and as you do, think of all those expectations slipping away too.
Every “I should . . .”
Each “I must . . .”
All the “I have to’s . . .”
Replace them instead with this:
“Because Jesus loves me, I will . . .”
“Because he fully accepts me, I can . . .”
“Because he promises me everything I need, I get to . . .”
When we live that way, our expectations are exchanged for exclamations—declarations from deep within our hearts and lives that tell the world we serve a God of grace.
XOXO
(inspired by Gal. 5:18; Eph. 2:8–9; 1 John 4:17–19 and adapted from If We Could Have Coffee…{ebook})
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Fun News
My new devotional book my new devotional book What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days: 52 Truths to Hold On To officially released yesterday! Woo-hoo!
You can order it by clicking here and it’s on sale right now!
And for the first time ever, I’m going to host a book club. Think of it like us gathering in a corner of our favorite coffee shop for some heart-to-heart encouragement. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? {To be part of the book club, all you need to do is like my Facebook page.} We will kick off the book club next Monday, September 8th so you still have time for you and your friends to get your books!
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Welcome to the Coffee for Your Heart weekly link-up!
You’re an encourager so I’m asking you to pour out a little love with your words every Wednesday {link-up goes live at 5:30am CST}. Simply write an encouraging blog post and then share it here with us. If you don’t have a blog, you can still come by holleygerth.com to read the posts and join in too.
If you’d like a writing prompt to get you going, here’s a list I created just for you: 30 Writing Prompts.
Pretty please use this new button in your post so others can easily join in with us {html code in right sidebar}…
And when you link up your post, take a moment to leave an encouraging comment on the one that’s linked up just before yours. Thanks, friends!
I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth
{click to tweet}
