Beauty for Ashes

“In my distress I called upon the Lord,

And cried out to my God;

He heard my voice from His temple, 

And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” 

~ Psalm 18:6

The hurt and pain that we encounter as humans can either break us or make us! Experiences of emotional hurt, physical abuse, sexual abuse, betrayal and rejection can break your inner core. Traumatic experiences as a young child can shape you into a broken adult. Feelings of being abandoned, broken and alone can keep you in a pit of darkness. This type of hurt and pain can cause a massive wall of distrust for all humans, even God! Many of us through painful experiences build this invisible wall up for “our own protection”. There were times that I convinced myself by building a wall “for protection”  I can control who I let hurt me. Improper thinking only led me to a place of resentment and anger. 

 I  unintentionally pushed people away when they started to get close like a natural defensive response to an attack. I lived in constant fear of being betrayed or taken advantage of. Years of crying myself to sleep and flashbacks of past events tormented me nightly. Some of us sit in this pain and wallow, screaming, “Life is not fair” or “why me”. Some of us bury this pain and cover it up with a charming smile, hair done, fashionable clothes showing off a facade to everyone around us. Many of us deal with hurt and pain in many different ways. Some ways hurt us even more. Some ways can hurt our family members and those closest to us. Some ways of dealing with pain can even keep us from the mighty presence of God! Drinking your sorrows away at the local bar or calling friends that will lead you straight into temptation and a path of destructive behavior. The world offers many destructive ways to deal with hurt and pain that will only have you in a place of depression and defeat! A downward spiral of sin.

 I am here to testify that only God can take this pain and exchange it for complete inner healing! Only Jesus can turn beauty for ashes! Not by our own ways or our own power but by the power and love of the Holy Spirit! God can turn what the enemy meant to destroy you and turn it for good.  

“To console those who mourn in Zion, 

To give them beauty for ashes, 

The oil of joy for mourning, 

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; 

That they may be called the trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” 

Isaiah 61:3

We suffer for many reasons, whether in the hands of our own mistakes or someone else's. Regardless of the circumstances God can provide forgiveness and inner healing. God can take something that appears to be dead and bring it back to life! God is in the business of transformation! In Isaiah 61:3, we are told that God can give us beauty for ashes! Ponder on that for a moment. Soak in this scripture. What are ashes? I found a definition that connected to this type of transformation. Ashes are the remains of something destroyed. Those remains can possibly mean our wounds or aftermath of our hurt and pain. Those remains can be the destruction of our own sins. Those remains can be the destruction that life itself has caused you. Whatever remains you have, there is something that you are instructed to do! Take those remains to the Lord! See this is the part that pride will try to rise its ugly head up. This is the part that many wounded people may struggle with. We have to hand it over to him, we have to take it to the altar and fully surrender our lives to the Lord. We have to let go of the hurt and pain and stop holding on to it. We have to lay it at the feet of the cross. We have to let our God be our transformer. We have to take our “ashes” to the Lord so that he can turn it into beauty! This simple, one-line process involves faith! This simple one-line process involves trust! The simple one-line process involves vulnerability. Set your emotions aside for a moment, let your flesh die (meaning what you feel like) and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to take these ashes with the expectation of receiving something beautiful! God I give you my ashes! I lay down all past hurts, all past traumas, all past pains at the foot of the cross and receive the beauty that you will turn it into.   

Throughout my life I found myself many times, kneeling down at the altar, begging the lord to take the pain I was experiencing away. This in itself is huge for me! I did not grow up in a faith based home. I did not know who God was let alone his son. It took years for me to get to an altar in desperation of a miracle. But when I did… God took ALL my ashes and made it into something I couldn't even imagine. As walls of anger and distrust were broken down, the seed of love and forgiveness was planted in my heart! The love of God poured over me, into me and through me. The more I sprinkled faith and watered the seed with the word of God, I began to grow! I began to feel again. I began to love others again.    

Our God is a transformer! Our God is a miracle worker! Our God is a healer! Our God is a redeemer! Our God is a provider! Our God is love! “The oil of JOY for mourning and The garment of PRAISE for the spirit of heaviness”. Let God transform your heart and mind today! He wants to give you JOY for an exchange of your mourning. He wants to give you a garment of praise in exchange for the spirit of heaviness!

He wants to give you beauty for your ashes!

“Heal my body, Heal my mind , let me be the fruit and you the vine.

Let me produce sweet wine as you use the crushing to refine.

The pain and the pressing will soon end in time.

As I reach for freedom, let it be mine!

Chains that don’t confine but fall in your presence as you claim…

She is mine!” ~ Betsy Segura