Over the last
few days, I can’t get the phrase “beauty for ashes” out of my head. It
reminded me of this passage in Isaiah 61:
1The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
for
the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed.
2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the Lord’s favor has come,
and with it, the day of God’s anger against their
enemies.
3 To all who mourn in Israel,
he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the Lord has
planted for his own glory.
You know, the
refining process is difficult. When you refine a metal, usually you use a
lot of heat to burn off the imperfections. There are times that I feel
like I am the imperfection and God has burned me up and left me as a pile of
ashes on the floor. Then, I begin to realize that the ashes on the floor
are just more areas of myself that have died. The pile right in front of
me is my pride. The pile to my left is my doubt, and over there is my
anger. I look around and see piles of ash everywhere, but that reminded me of a
verse I've read over and over in Philippians, "He who began a good work in
you will carry it on to the day of completion until the day of Christ."
What can God
possibly do with all these ashes? How, in all my brokenness, can God still
use me to encourage someone else, when I can't find any encouragement myself?
During the refining process, it gets really ugly. There are sins
that come to the surface that have been buried very deeply. Over many
years, I have pushed those things further and further down to where I have
either forgotten them, or I don't want to deal with them. God, in His
infinite wisdom and grace, brings me to a place where He unearths them and desires to
leave them as a pile of ash on the floor. Sometimes it's gently with a
careful hand, and sometimes it's painful with a big gash. Either way, it
becomes ash. How can beauty rise from such ashes?
After another
imperfection in my soul is burned away, I take an inventory of the
"new" me. I begin to realize I have more patience, I have more
belief, I have less pride, maybe I have more understanding. There
is less and less of me, and I begin reflecting Him more and more. Although the refining process is painful and, at times, unbearable, I begin to realize that it is a rebirth. I
remember that my journey to understand God in a deeper, awe-inspiring way began
with a simple prayer. That simple prayer turned into a journey that has
been filled with potholes, mistakes, wrong turns, and confusion. However,
throughout all my errors, God has remained faithful to His promise that He will
be faithful to complete the process. Being refined is never fun while you
are in the middle of the it because each day, more and more of you is
dying. The payoff is that the box you have God in is expanded more and
more to the point where, hopefully, you don't put Him in a box anymore.
You also reach a point in the process where you have no choice but to
keep moving forward. I pray we all can have to courage to find that place
and keep moving. We all need to see the beauty that is on the other side.
I am a HUGE
Shane & Shane fan. As a guitar player, my favorite concert of all
time was when they came to the town I live in to the local college and played a
concert with just the two of them and two guitars. It was amazing.
They wrote this song several years ago, and it can be your anthem while
God is refining you!
"Beauty
for Ashes"
by Shane &
Shane
Verse
Beauty for
ashes
A garment of
praise for my heaviness
Beauty for
ashes
Take this
heart of stone and make it Yours, Yours
Chorus
I delight
myself in the Richest of Fair
Trading all
that I've had for all that is better
A garment of
praise for my heaviness
You are the
greatest taste
You're the
richest of fair
Thank you.
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