God's Heart for You Archives

Prodigal Sons, Big Brothers and Beloved Daughters

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I’ve read the story of the prodigal son. Most of us have. We know the plot well. The son rebels. The father waits. The son comes home. The father runs to him. But what I have never really noticed, what my anxious, try-hard heart missed in this story is the father pursued the older son too.

The older son is busy working hard in the fields when his little brother shows up. It seems big brother is likely the striver and performer, the perfectionist of the family. He has done his part. He has sacrificed. He has held it all together. This might be why he can’t make himself go inside the party celebrating the return of the prodigal. Because this is not the way he believes life works. In his world, you hustle for your worth. You trade effort for affection. You earn everything that’s given to you.

So the older brother stands outside, alone.

I have been there. I have lived this story.

That’s why what comes next is so beautiful to me. “His father came out and entreated him” (Luke 15:28). The word entreated means to ask someone earnestly. The father wants his son to come into the house, the place of belonging, into a space of grace.

The father has entreated me too…

“Holley, will you believe that I truly love you?”

“Will you trust that your worth rests not on what you do but what I’ve done for you?”

“Will you stop performing and rest in My grace?”

Then the father calls the older brother “Dear Son” (Luke 15:31). It is a reminder of his true identity. When we are hustling and working hard we can so easily forget who we are and how much we’re loved.

The father also says, “You have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). In other words, “Remember our relationship. Remember you have no reason to strive, nothing to prove.”

As I write this I’m almost undone by the tenderness of the father.

The story ends and we don’t know if the older son ever chooses to go in. But I know this: today I’m stepping back into the house. Today I’m choosing to belong. Today I’m going to believe what the Father says to and about me.

Sometimes people ask, “Are you the prodigal or the older brother in this story?” I always have trouble answering because I think we are all both sons—we have wandering hearts and work-for-my-worth hands. We are rebels and perfectionists. And, thankfully, we all have a Father who comes for us, who never stops loving us, who knows us even better than we know ourselves.

We are the prodigal son and the older brother, yet we don’t have to live as either. We can choose to live as someone else entirely different today, the role our Father wants most for you, me and all our sisters: Being the beloved daughter.

XOXO
Holley Gerth

P.S. If you’re looking for a creative Mother’s Day gift, here’s an idea for you: Sponsor a little girl through Compassion International in honor of a Mama in your life. One of the best way to say “thanks” is to pay it forward, right? And when you do so through this link, you’ll get a gift too–a free copy of Fiercehearted! Changed life, Mother’s Day gift, a little something for you. That’s some fabulous multitasking right there.

P.P.S. If you know a high school or college student who is graduating this May, a woman with a God-sized dream who longs to bring glory to God as she lives with passion and purpose in the middle of all the crazy, this book might be the perfect gift!

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Right now, we’re doing a special link-up series to celebrate Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely. You’re a fiercehearted woman so I’m asking you to pour out a little love and courage with your words every Wednesday {the link-up goes live at 5:30am CST}. Simply write an encouraging blog post, especially if it’s about living fully and loving bravely, and then share it here. Don’t have a blog? You can still write an encouraging comment. If you’re reading this by email, go to holleygerth.com to see all the fun and join in too.

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 that you’re joining me here today}

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I Want to Be This Kind of Woman

by Holley 15 Comments

We are women and this is a powerful thing. It is an echo of God’s heart and a display of His glory. He speaks this world into being—let there be light—but when He makes woman, it’s intimate and personal.

Imagine the scene. Adam drifting off to sleep in the sunlight, the whisper of God’s footsteps on the grass, the bend of His knees as He reaches down. He touches Adam’s side, the place closest to his heart, and takes hold of a rib. Perhaps the animals gather to watch. A porcupine with sharp quills who’s trying not to be socially awkward sits next to a chubby panda having another afternoon snack, while a squirrel deliriously runs circles around them all.

Then a hush comes as the Artist begins to work. He stretches the rib out long and adds curves and flesh and eyelashes. Yes, a freckle just above her lip, a wrinkle on her elbow, a softness in the palms of her hands, and a strength between her shoulder blades.

I think God smiles.

Soon all that beauty will be marred with sin like spitballs on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He will curse her. He will not give up on her. And later a Messiah will set her free. But even after that the woman circles the borders of Eden, never completely reclaiming the truth. She forgets her story. The people around her tell her different versions. The world is a web of lies and she is the butterfly with paper wings struggling in the corner.

She doesn’t see she is lovely. She becomes untethered from the fierceness inside her. She tries on shoes like Cinderella in yoga pants and eats leftover cookies alone in the middle of the night and sees the plastic surgeon for one more touch-up, the knife splitting her skin’s surface like the hurt splits her soul. Or she hides and tries very hard to be very good. She joins every committee and says yes to bathing one hundred poodles for charity and grows dim in the flicker of the television light.

And all the while, the One who made her is calling her back, still walking in the garden of her heart in the cool of the day and saying, “I am with you.” He offers what she longs for most—for Him to tell her who she really is, to whisper in her ear that He has made her funny and wise and strong and brave. That she is tender and resilient and complex and wonder-filled. She is mystery and unveiling. She is salty tears and the sweat at the finish line and the lioness in the corner office and lullabies in the night. She is not an afterthought; she has been an essential part of the plan all along.

Somewhere a snake hisses and a Savior on a cross declares, “It is finished.” The curtain splits and the curse breaks and the promise of Eden comes back to us. All the sisters and the daughters and the mamas say, “Amen.” Redemption joyfully roars back, “You are a woman.” It echoes through the ages.

When I listen closely, I can hear it still.

XOXO,

Holley

P.S. This post is an excerpt from my new book Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely and is also up at (in)courage today. If you preorder a copy, please be sure to submit your receipt to receive several free gifts! I’d also love to invite you to join me for the free Fiercehearted Fall Study! The online study will kick off on October 3rd, launch day. There will be exclusive videos, discussions about the book, giveaways, and more. Nearly 2,000 women participated in the last study {and books sold out from several retailers}. Preorder Fiercehearted now to be sure you have your copy in time—plus you’ll get the free gifts!

P.P.S. If you’re in Northwest Arkansas or close by {OK, MO, KS, TX–I’m talking to you!} I’d love to see you at the Fiercehearted Launch Party on October 3rd! {A special segment of the Launch Party will be shared via live video in the Fiercehearted Fall Study.}

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From August 16th through October we’re doing a special link-up series to celebrate Fiercehearted: Live Fully, Love Bravely {launching October 3rd!} You’re a fiercehearted woman so I’m asking you to pour out a little love and courage with your words every Wednesday {the link-up goes live at 5:30am CST}. Simply write an encouraging blog post, especially if it’s about living fully and loving bravely, and then share it here. Don’t have a blog? You can still write an encouraging comment. If you’re reading this by email, go to holleygerth.com to see all the fun and join in too.

Pretty please use this button in your blog post so others can easily join in with us {the html code is in the right sidebar of my main blog page}. 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 that you’re joining me here today}

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You Have Always Been Loved

by Holley

This is the message that the Lord gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi.
“I have always loved you,” says the Lord. Malachi 1:1-2, NLT

I have always loved you. They are the words we want to know in our bones, on our bad days, in the moments we wake up during the thick of night. And yet we, like Israel, can find it hard believe. “Really? How have you loved us?” (Malachi 1:2).

God answers with what He has done, how He has shown His faithfulness, the ways He has fulfilled His promises. He talks about Jacob and Esau, the hill country and a desert for jackals. I wonder if they scratched their heads then. Because they, like we often do, might have different ideas about what “love” looks like.

God, if You loved me I wouldn’t have this struggle, that heartache or the salty tears on my pillow.

God, if You loved me I would be married/have a baby/live in a Caribbean beach house.

God, if You loved me I would be rich and successful and never have bad hair days.

Surely life would look like what we long for if God really loved us. When that doesn’t happen we get scared or controlling, impatient or bitter. We go looking for love in other places, other faces. Maybe we decide we must be unworthy of being loved by God. We will try harder. We will do better.

All the while God is saying, I have always loved you. Here is the evidence: My Son on a cross, My presence in Your life, My Spirit within you bringing truth and grace. My love is wound through your history like a scarlet thread even in the dark moments. It is the one constant in the chaos. It cannot be lost. It cannot be won. It is yours in the blink of this life and the vastness of eternity.

Friends, I invite you to continue reading with me today at (in)courage…

We Really Are Forgiven

by Holley 29 Comments

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

You will again have compassion on us;
you will hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. {Micah 6:19}

I walk along a stretch of beach as the sun plays hide-and-seek behind clouds along the horizon. My toe brushes against something and I pause to pick up a piece of driftwood. I run my fingers along the slick edge of its surface worn smooth by time and sand and the pounding of waves.

I wonder who else has touched it. Maybe it was tossed into the water by a carefree child in a pink striped swimsuit. Perhaps a lover threw it in anger after a stroll on the beach turned into a tiff. It might have been swept away before a tail-wagging dog could retrieve it.

I toss it lightly into the surf only to have it come rolling back to me again. I lean back and pretend I’m a baseball pitcher. This doesn’t lead to a better result and may have inspired a few giggles from fellow tourists. At last I give up and surrender it to the sand where it stares up at me each time I revisit this stretch of loveliness.

I think of how God talks about hurling our sins into the sea and I wonder if it’s like this somehow. What if we think they’re gone but when the tide comes in there they are again? It can certainly feel this way in my mind sometimes.

But when I look at the verse where God says this I find I have left out a very important part. It doesn’t just say our sins go into the sea; it says God throws them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).

The deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana Trench, which is about 36,000 feet (that’s over six miles). If we were to visit this place without taking a light with us it would be impossible to see. We’d find ourselves in inky black. In other words, when God says He has hurled our sin into the depths of the sea it means it can no longer be seen. Not ever.

Also, in the deep sea there is great pressure that holds all within it in place. Once there, an object is not going to come back to the surface. When God says our sins are gone He means it. They are not about to emerge from some hidden place to suddenly appear before us again.

And there is no plant life or growth in the deep. If we want healing and restoration we will not find it by trying to dive back down to the level of our sins. We can let them stay where God has put them and let go forever because we’re forgiven.

On the final day of my stay I pick up the piece of driftwood again. I try one more time to return it to the ocean. This time a current grabs it and I watch it drift out of sight toward its next destination.

I wonder if I’ll ever see it again. It has come to feel like a strange kind of familiar friend and I’d welcome it if I saw it again. But there are many other things I’m glad are gone forever to the depths, cast there by a God whose love is as unrelenting as the waves against the shore.

XOXO

Holley Gerth

* If you liked this post you’ll love this book – You’re Loved No Matter What: Freeing Your Heart from the Need to Be Perfect

* Looking for a study to do with a group this fall or next spring? Check out the You’re Already Amazing LifeGrowth Guide and free videos.

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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. Don’t have a blog? You can still write an encouraging comment. If you’re reading this by email, go to holleygerth.com to see all the fun and join in too.

Pretty please use this button in your blog 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 that you’re joining me here today}

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The Secret Strength of Patience

by Holley 38 Comments

{my graphics are free goodies for you}

Better to be patient than powerful. {Prov. 16:32}

I read these words one summer morning curled up in bed and I write them in my journal. I don’t understand at first why they resonate with me. After all, I don’t consider myself someone who grasps for power—at least not in the traditional sense.

But as I get up and begin to go about my day I realize I want power over certain things. I want to control how my day will go. I want people to like me. I want to do my work flawlessly. And to make sure that happens, I push. I try hard. I rush and hustle.

And all of this, I suddenly see, is different than patience. Because patience is about receiving. It’s about believing that everything will work out. It’s about resting in the shade of God’s love instead of toiling in the sun of striving.

But patience also requires giving up control, it means surrendering our perceived power. This is hard and scary for me. Yet it is also what our weary souls long for, what they are really hoping will be the outcome of all our efforts.

Patience isn’t just about time; it’s also about trust. It’s about saying, “I don’t have to be in control. I don’t have to hold the power because I know the One who does. And He is for me. He is always working on my behalf. And this means I don’t have to strive or reach for control.”

This is the true work of patience; not only to help us wait but to help us worship. To empty our hands and bend our knees and bow our heads. This is a wild, heart-freeing thing. Because what we want even more than to be in control is to be cared for by Someone who truly loves us.

I let out a sigh of relief as I realize all over again we are. We always have been. We forever will be. God is inviting us to see it even now, to believe it, to know it all the way to our bones. Waiting for us patiently.

XOXO

Holley Gerth

p.s. If you’re a fan of both patience and progress you’ll love The Do What You Can Plan {ebook}. You can find it at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth

{click to tweet that you’re joining me here today}

An InLinkz Link-up