Holley Gerth - Opening the Door to Your God-Sized Dream: 40 Days of Encouragement for Your Heart

2013 by Holley Gerth

Published by Revell

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.revellbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-4475-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations identified NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents

Introduction

God-sized dream = a desire in your heart for more of what God has for you

The coffee steams up from my cup. The chatter of other conversations swirls around me. The baristas are busy at their work.

Im here to write about God-sized dreams. And a voice within me keeps insisting, Its not the right time.

Youre too busy.

Its too hard.

I know that voice. It comes whenever I get ready to take the next step toward what God has for me. Maybe youve heard it too?

When you have more experience...

When the kids are older...

When the bank account is fuller...

But heres the thing: there is no perfect time for a God-sized dream.

God-sized dreams knock on the door of our hearts. We can get so used to the sound that we let them stand outside for a lifetime. They dont force their way in, insist to be heard, or demand to be pursued.

We have to choose to let our God-sized dreams into our lives. In the middle of the busy. In the middle of the insecurity. In the middle of the fear.

When you open the door of your heart to a God-sized dream, you also open it wider to the Giver of them. Thats what matters most of all. If you long for more intimacy with Jesus, joy in your life, purpose in your days, then put your hand on the doorknob and get ready to turn it.

Will it be a little scary? Yes.

Will it probably be harder than you thought? Yes.

Will it be more worth it than you could have even imagined? Absolutely.

Close your eyes for a moment. Listen not with your ears but with the deepest part of you.

Tap-tap .

Its there.

A God-sized dream waiting not for the perfect time but for this one waiting for this moment . Right here. Right now.

Lets open the door together.

Ill be right there with you as you do.

And best of all, God will too.

Giving Words to Your God-Sized Dream

In the beginning was the Word...

John 1:1

The question comes quietly, Have you ever shared your God-sized dream with anyone?

Its posted online in a group of ninety-nine God-sized dreamers. You can almost hear the nervous laughter spread throughout the thread.

A few answers appear: Yes, Ive shared my God-sized dream with...

My husband.

My best friend.

Someone at my church.

But more common than those answers are the confessions that putting words to a God-sized dream is downright scary.

What if it doesnt come true?

What if I fail?

What if this isnt what God has for me after all?

I nod my head in understanding at these questions. Its one thing to have a quiet desire within your heart. Its quite another to let it have a voice.

And yet all the way back to the start of creation, God shows us words have incredible power. The story of earth opens with creation being spoken into being.

Let there be light.

Let the land produce.

Let us make mankind in our image.

Let is a word of permission. Its an opening up, an inviting in, a bringing forth. What is the let there be... that needs to be spoken in your life?

When God says, Let there be... the same response always follows: And there was. For the Creator of the universe, words and results always align. For us finite humans, the process unfolds differently.

First, it takes time for our God-sized dreams to fully come into being. We can get discouraged when the vision doesnt instantly become reality. But only God has that capability. God-sized dreams take perseverance.

Also, what God envisions and what happens are one and the same because he has perfect perspective. For us, our God-sized dreams usually turn out very differently than we imagined when we began. They require flexibility as we let our original plan be reshaped to Gods will.

And for our dreams to become reality, our words have to be followed with action. Once we put words to our dreams, its easy to think thats all it takes. But thats only the beginning. Our words become the driver for what we do... again and again, day after day.

I glance once more at the responses from the God-sized dream team online. The fear is slowly giving way to excitement, support, and joy. As they share their hearts, I can feel the beat within their words. Like the first blip on an ultrasound when new life appears.

Small but powerful.

Full of promise.

The beginning of good things.

Let there be...

a God-sized dream in your life today.

Read John 1:15 to discover more about the Word and his creative work in our lives and hearts.

God, thank you that you are the Creator of all things and all true dreams. Its a little scary to put words to mine, but at the same time I know doing so brings life and power into what youre asking me to do in mysterious ways. Give me courage to say yes to what youre asking me to do, and most of all, help me to draw closer today to you. Amen.

Youve put your God-sized dream into words. Now try drawing it here. (Disclaimer: I have no artistic skills, and its okay if you dont either.) Practice going through the process God did at creationgoing from what you say to what you can see.