Holding onto Hope

First of all, thank you for your prayers for my Grandpa Hollie this week. He came through surgery really well. I so appreciate your support, sweet readers!

All that's happened in our family recently has brought to mind a devotional from my book, Rain on Me: Devotions of Hope and Encouragement for Difficult Times, so I'd like to share it with you today...

HOLDING ONTO HOPE

 

I wear two rings.

The ring on my left hand represents the commitment I've made to my husband.

The ring on my right hand is a simple silver ban with the word HOPE inscribed on it.

After experiencing a difficult season in my life, I bought the ring to be a daily reminder of my commitment to God and myself to live in HOPE no matter what happens.

Before this time in my life, I thought HOPE was an emotion. Now I've realized it's so much more...

HOPE is more than a word--

it's a state of being.

It's a firm belief that

even if you don't know how,

even if you don't know when,

God will come through

and better days are ahead.

Life brings rain...

HOPE dances in the puddles

until the sun comes out again. 

The world or our circumstances may tell us, "Hope is dead. God is gone. There's nothing you can do." On those days we have to remember we're committed to HOPE no matter what happens.

Even when we can't see it.

Even when we don't feel it.

Even when all the evidence suggests the opposite.

Committing to HOPE doesn't mean believing that one day we'll get what we want. True HOPE is believing in unchanging truths...

God is good.

He has a plan.

We are loved.

Like a strong marriage sealed by a ring, that kind of HOPE can see us through a lifetime of "for better or worse."

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

What helps you hold onto HOPE?

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psst. I'll tell you a little secret...

My book, Rain on Me: Devotions of Hope and Encouragement for Difficult Times, is on sale right now on DaySpring.com.

And you can get an extra 20% off with my friends and family coupon code, holley20.

It could be an encouraging Christmas gift or hopeful way to start off the new year.

Download a free excerpt of Rain on Me by Holley Gerth

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Barnes & Noble Book Signing

Update: Here are a few fun pics from the book signing! Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by!

 

I got to do the book signing with my fabulous friend and talented writer Gwen Ford Faulkenberry. She was signing her devotional A Beautiful Life and her Christian romance novel Love Finds You in Romeo, Colorado.

 

These are a few of my wonderful girlfriends--Andrea, Tena, and Kathleen.

 

And one of my favorite families, our dear friends Heather and Tony with little ones Micah and Lily.

I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone. When I'm nervous I tend to forget important things like how to spell my name (story below) and that there is a camera sitting right in front of me! I really appreciate all of you who were there and those of you who were thinking of me even if you couldn't make it!

I'm getting ready for a Rain on Me book signing at our local Barnes & Noble tonight. It's a bit of a "pinch me" moment. (Hopefully I won't blow that this time by walking into the men's bathroom and/or spelling my own name wrong.) I keep thinking about how God has brought me through the desert and into this place where I'm finally seeing blessings flow out of my pain. This devotional from Rain on Me describes my heart on that subject so I wanted to share it with you today...

The “Yes” You Never Expected

He stilled the storm to a whisper;

the waves of the sea were hushed.

                                         Psalm 107:29

A few years ago, a coworker came rushing up to my desk with good news to share. She exclaimed, “A greeting card you wrote has been nominated for an award!” I asked her what kind of card it was, and she replied, “Baby congratulations.”

After she walked away from my desk, I sat in stunned silence for a few moments as I considered the irony. An infertile woman might receive an award for a baby congratulations card!

As I looked back over the last few years, several other similar instances came to mind. I unexpectedly got to help develop a line of baby gifts. I published three books for children.

Slowly the Lord began to reveal something to my heart. I sensed Him softly whispering, I’ve said yes to every prayer that has been prayed for new life to come through you. It has just been in a different way than you expected. As I absorbed those words, tears came to my eyes. I knew it was true.

I also knew that I had believed a lie. That lie went something like, “You did something wrong, and so God is saying no to your prayers.” I thought if I could just be better, then somehow I could earn what I wanted.

Now, though, I suddenly realized God had been saying yes all along. In that moment God “stilled the storm to a whisper” in my life. Before then all I could hear was the rain pounding against my heart, and the steady beat sounded like no, no, no, no.

You’ve heard that sound, haven’t you? Late at night, when all is quiet. In the middle of the day, when you’re caught off guard by a painful longing or unwelcome memory. In the morning, when you wake up to another day where things are not as they should be.

Yet if we listen closer, there is another sound. It’s the heartbeat of our Heavenly Father. And it’s always yes, yes, yes, yes. Even when we don’t understand, yes. Even when it’s different than what we expected, yes. Even when it seems as if nothing good is happening at all, yes.

Over the next few months, five people told me on separate occasions that they felt God was going to bring new life through my words. I hadn’t told any of them what God had revealed to my heart, and it was further confirmation of what I’d sensed to be true. Not having a child still hurt, but I also found renewed peace in knowing that God was at work.

Perhaps it’s time for you to ask your Heavenly Father to “still the storm to a whisper” in your life and help you hear His voice in a new way. You just may discover a no in your life is actually a yes you never expected.

19 Books You (yes, you!) Recommended Reading

Thanks for all of the book recommendations in your comments from my last post! I decided to condense them all to one list for everyone to see...

1) Sushi for One by Camy Tang

2) Seasons of Marriage series by Catherine Palmer

3) Come Away My Beloved by Frances Roberts

4) Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

5) As Sure as the Dawn (Mark of the Lion series) by Francine Rivers

6) Franciscan Life Day One: 800 Years 1209-2009

7) Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver

8) Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell

9) The Love Dare by Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick

10) Let Go by Sheila Walsh

11) One of a Kind by God's Design by Karla Dornacher

12) This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury

13) Behind Those Eyes by Lisa Whittle

14) Praying through the Bible by Stormie Omartian

15) Just Beyond The Clouds by Karen Kingsbury

16) A Thousand Tomorows by Karen Kingsbury

17) It's Not about Me by Max Lucado

18) The Power of Simple Prayer by Joyce Meyer

19) Above the Line: Take One by Karen Kingsbury

(Karen Kingsbury needs to give you ladies some advertising fees!)

As for the two copies of Gwen Faulkenberry's A Beautiful Life devotional, those are going to Dori and Mandy Baker. Congratulations, girls!

I leave bright and early tomorrow morning for the Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference in California. I, of course, am scared silly. I've tried on my entire wardrobe fourteen times. I'm also very excited about what God has in store.

If you'll recall, at the last conference I walked into the men's bathroom and broke the water jug (clarification: the water jug was in the lobby not the bathroom--that would be gross) so who knows what may happen.

I'd appreciate your prayers and I'll do my best to get some pics and posts up while I'm gone.

Love y'all, sweet readers!

(Just had to say "y'all" one more time before I go out west where that isn't a real word.)