Beauty From Ashes
Was it just me or did this past weekend go by too fast? I had a moment with God last week and he reminded me of something. I started to read this book called, "It's Not Supposed To Be This Way" by Lysa Terkeurst. I'm on the 3rd chapter called "Dust." She starts off by talking about how sometimes we want God to fix, edit and repair our lives...but what if God doesn't have that in mind for us?" She continues to say that what if God just wants to make something completely NEW out of your circumstance. We sometimes think that what's already broken is no good in our lives, but that's the amazing thing about God, is that he can take what's broken and make it beautiful again.
Lysa gave the example of ice and said that when its frozen it's just a cube, but when it melts it becomes a liquid that can be molded into something new. So, going back to dust, God created Adam from dust. From something that seems so insignificant, God made something NEW. Dust doesn't have to signify the end. Dust is often what must be present for the new to begin. After reading this, my mind was blown. We think that God can't use us because we are "a mess"...don't ever say that about yourself. Things may not be going the way you had wanted them, your relationship may not be working out like it used to, you may have acted on impulse and made decisions that you shouldn't have but you ARE NOT A MESS.
If you think that God can't use you because you might see yourself as "too broken", then let me be the first to tell you that God can use your mess and make it something new! He can make your mess something beautiful! He can make your mess into something that will impact other people. Don't lose hope just yet. I know that sometimes we second guess ourselves, but don't second guess God. He keeps every single one of his promises and he's NEVER going to let you down. Trust me. God can make BEAUTY from ASHES, so that means that he can take your broken pieces and turn them into something EXTRAVAGANT!
In this time, you'll see that your brokenness only allowed you to be molded by God into the person that he has created you to be.