Beauty For Ashes

Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, 3 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 trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (NKJV)

The Word of God tells us that the Holy Ghost is our comforter.  I can’t speak for anyone else, but I am glad foreseen that I would need to be comforted.  That I would have times of broken heartedness and need healing; that there would be times of mourning that would need to be replaced by joy; That in my life there would be times of heaviness where only worship could lift me up; and that I might make mistakes that would devastate my life, a time where my sin would leave my life in a pile of rubble and ashes so that I would need the restoring power of the Holy Ghost to replace my ashes with the beauty of His love.

In our scripture text it says that God would console those who mourn in Zion, or those who are of His household.  His word specifically tells us that those in God’s house are going to get God’s attention.  As a father, former youth minister, and former baseball coach I can tell that even though I cared for all the children, my own children, those in my family, the children in my household were my priority.  If, then you are of the household of faith, you have God’s attention and when you cry out He is focused on your need.

If there is anyone that I want to have their attention – it’s God.  I want His eyes focused upon me.  I want His ear tuned in to my cries.  I want to be underneath the umbrella of His divine protection. I want to abide in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of His wings.

The Word says that He will give us beauty for ashes. In Biblical times it was the custom in great times of mourning and difficulty lay in ashes. Just think about that for moment. You are facing a difficult situation, you’ve got a problem in your life and it is getting the best of you, so you just sit down in a pile of ashes. There is nothing beautiful about ashes.

But the Word of God tells us that He is going to take your difficult, disgusting, and depressing situation and give you beauty. He is going to pick you up out of the ash pile of life and make something beautiful out of you.  The Hebrew word for ashes is “epher” and the Hebrew word for beauty is “pheer.”  Just move the “e” and you have a whole different word. And just as quickly as it takes for you to move one letter God is going to turn your sorrow into joy. He speaks and it is already done.

You may be in a place right now where you feel like your life is ugly and insignificant. But many times things that appear ugly, just need the right climate to grow:

Take for example “Mexico’s Wonder Plant,” the “Maguey.”  It is a species of century plant that grows in the harsh environment of the Mexican desert.  It goes for long periods of time with no water, when it does rain the plant is able to store the water in its heart to refresh itself in the times of drought.  It grows for years with great course leaves, three inches thick and very long. It sprouts sharp thorns and is just as ugly as can be. The longer it’s alive and the more it grows, and it just seems to get uglier all the time. But then suddenly, in just a couple of days, it begins to shoot up and a great shaft tall and thick begins to grow. Its spreading head is now covered with thousands of flowers and becomes a beautiful and fragrant plant.  The potential for all that beauty had always been within that ugliness.

Many times the fragrant beauty that God has for our lives is hidden beneath calloused rituals, smothered by daily schedules and the monotonous grind of a chaotic world.  Many times we grow through times when it seems like it is never going to rain again, one ugly situation after another seems to overtake us, but if we have stored up the rain in our hearts, if we are filled with the Holy Ghost, we have a reservoir from which to draw comfort in times of spiritual drought and the times painful experiences will lead to something beautiful.

Isaiah said that the Lord will give you beauty for ashes. God knew that many times we would be burnt by life’s experiences. But He also knew, that if we called upon Him, He could replace that burnt out mess with something beautiful.

An old song we used to sing when I was a kid, I haven’t heard it in years, but the Lord just brought it to my mind while I was writing just now.  It was written by Bill Gaither and it says:

“Something beautiful something good,

All my confusion He understood,

All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife,

But He made something beautiful of my life.”

Whatever God’s hands touches eventually becomes a thing of beauty.  All you need for your transformation is a touch from the Master’s hand.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”

When Job was burnt by life, he burnt the devil because he fell down and praised God.  When the three Hebrew children were in the fiery furnace, they burnt the devil by praising God.  When Daniel was in the lion’s den, He burnt the devil because he prayed and thanked God.  When Abraham was commanded by the Lord to sacrifice his son, his faith burnt the devil because he said, “I and the lad will go and worship.”

Hannah, the day she gave Samuel back to God, burnt the devil because she cried out, “My heart rejoices in the Lord.”

The Apostle Paul burnt the devil when he was in chains because he proclaimed, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.”

You can burn the devil in times of difficulty by refreshing yourself with the streams of living water that flow forth from within you because you are filled with the Holy Ghost.  Even in the darkest moments of our lives we have a reservoir of hope within us, during the drought we have an internal and eternal source of hope to sustain us if we call upon His name and give Him praise and glory.  Then when all is said and done, when we’ve come through the fire, when the flood waters recede, and when we stand on the other side of the Jordon God’s beauty will be evident in our lives.