The Lord knows the plans He has for you. Jeremiah 29:11
A couple of years ago, the Lord put so strongly into my heart a fire to want to reach people in the community with His hope. Somehow to plant seeds that we don’t need to fear, there is one who is sovereign, and despite the chaos of the world, our country, our community, our lives, that there is one greater, who loves each one of us, that has a plan and future for their lives, one that can bring all things together for good. Regardless of the pain and devastation and destruction in one’s lives, the Lord can bring it all together for good and make it even more beautiful than before. Last January, Cup of Tea Ministry was officially a ministry.
He brought beauty from ashes.
It took a lot of prayer (A LOT of prayer), a lot of stepping out in faith, and stepping out in fear. It took a season of two years before in some of my darkest valleys of pain from broken trust, loss, divorce, and what felt like a future hoped for reduced to ashes.
Then, the Lord was faithful, as He always has been and always will be, and He gave beauty from ashes, as He promises in His word:
Isaiah 61:3 To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair
During this season, God spoke so strongly to me through my prayers, through His word, through even worship songs. The Garden by Kari Jobe was one of the first ones the Lord brought across my path as He was healing and redeeming me. He will sweep away the ashes. He will heal your broken soul. Creation testifies to the power and glory of God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43Z0WJLDS4In 1980, Mount St. Helen’s erupted, and left total destruction in its wake. Everything was destroyed, burned to the ground, demolished. No one, no scientist, no ecologist, no resident thought there would be any coming back from this unexpected devastation. It was anticipated to remain in total desolation
with no ability for anything to live in the aftermath. How could anything come of what was only a heap of ashes remaining?
But God. A couple of weeks later, as scientists scoured the heaps of ash, there was a single 2-3 inch shoot of a plant, called ‘fireweed’ poking up in the midst of the ashes. In an article ‘After the Ashes’, and a book ‘After the Blast’, it documents the surprise of the scientists and ecologists, as how life could have not only been brought forth in the ashes, but thrived, and ultimately the mountain became even more beautiful and covered with the most splendor of wildfires that wouldn’t have existed, except having been born and nourished by the ash. https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/lifes-resilience-on-mount-st-helens-blew-scientists-away/
What are the fires burning in your life right now? What devastation and loss and what feels like total destruction have you been
through? In what ways do you think the Lord can bring beauty from ashes? God promises He will bring beauty from ashes, that He will work all things together for good (Romans 8:28) and whatever was meant for evil, God will use it for good (Genesis 50:20).
Let your garden bloom, let the Lord nourish your ashes for the beautiful plans He has ahead for your life. Step out in faith and in fear, because He will make something so beautiful from the embers stirring in your soul.
