I see you sitting there among the ashes. I’ve watched you wonder in dismay how on earth you got here. How the earth turned to ashes, having burned your hopes, your desires, your very identity. I see you overwhelmed by the propensity to give up, give in, and let it all die; to let it smolder away with the wind. Your unrealized dreams mock you. Shame taunts you to believe you’re a failure. I see how the smoke disorients you, cloaking you in its fog, settling on you in a cloud of confusion. Pain has caused a great deal of sorrow. But I see clear through it all. I see YOU.
Wait, God! What are you doing?! Those ashes are mine! I don’t want them to blow away! These are the ashes of my life, and I am very protective of them!
I’m stirring up these ashes. Do you trust Me, that if I blow on them, I can contain them? Look again. See? The ashes aren’t scattering and blowing away. They’re held within My tender care. I’m stirring them with my very breath. The Breath of Life.
There’s a treasure to uncover beneath this burnt earth, and it’s you. Your past has shaped you, but not always into the person you were meant to be. Your true self is buried under the ashes of many pains; the ones others inflicted, the ones you inflicted upon yourself, and the enemy’s cruel infliction of pain upon pain.Now watch.
What is this, God?
Rain. Healing rain. What was buried in sorrow isn’t dead. Below the blackened surface of your life are many seeds. So, I will pour out My love. I will come like a flood into the ashes I have stirred; stirred so that they can receive My love when it comes. The dry season of your soul is over.
I won’t overwhelm you. I won’t drive out all your enemies at once, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals take over.[1] I understand how I made you, My daughter, My son. When a specific pain is tended and removed, it creates an empty space upon the landscape of you that needs to be filled. I’ll fill it with My love and My life, even the truth of who you are, if you’ll let me. So you won’t fill it back up again with the pain and old destructive patterns and habits.
Pray for My love to come. Pray for My healing rains. Whatever we need to tend we do so together; you don’t face your pain alone. With My glory strength in you, facing your pain will not be your undoing. Rather, you will become more of your true self. In its time, new life will emerge from among the ashes. You’ll see.
Oh Jesus, here’s my pain, my losses, my disappointments. Breathe Your breath to clear the smoke and stir the ashes. Help me see You coming for me. Flood these places with Your love. Show me which ashes You wish to tend. Thank You for not overwhelming me with all of it at once. Let Your healing rain bring forth the beauty You promised. Let what’s dead in me come to new life because of You.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted… to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes…” Isaiah 61:1-3
[1] “But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” Exodus 23:29-30
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Melissa. Daughter of God. Lover of Jesus. Wife to Andy. Mama to four fun-loving adult children, and two bonus sons. And now, Mia to TWINS. Embracer of brave. Why? Because in every doubt, in every broken cry, God is making me whole again. Join me?
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