Beauty for Ashes

Have you ever watched a house burn down to the ground? When I was a young girl, I along with a crowd in my neighborhood watched as a house aflame blazed down to the ground. Firefighters rained water from a nearby hydrant to no avail. At first they worked tirelessly and then seemed to give up. They let it burn and stood watch to prevent it from spreading. We listened to the flames crackle. Hours later there remained the rubble of what was once a home and of course, ashes.

When a marriage is dying, it is like a burning relationship. The flaming darts of the enemy have hit their targets and a host of other factors contribute to the marriage going down in flames. But God! The ashes that remain—God can take those ashes and give beauty for ashes. God can give an unexpected good future and restore the joy that was stolen. Instead of your shroud of mourning, God is replacing it with a veil of joy that shall cover you with His favor. Your spouse shall see it upon you with the eyes of his heart and once again, you will know the beauty of love together again. The beauty of a marriage burned to the ground is that ONLY GOD CAN restore it. The immensity of that fact is only God is qualified to take what the enemy meant to destroy and kill a marriage and use it to resurrect that marriage so that it bring Him glory 💝

Isaiah 61 Jubilee version ~

61 ” The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings unto those who are cast down; to bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound;

2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

3 to order in Zion those that mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

4 ¶ And they shall build the old wastes; they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall restore the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD; men shall call you the Ministers of our God; ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and with their glory ye shall be lifted up.

7 Instead of your double shame, and your dishonour, they shall praise you in your inheritance; therefore in your land ye shall possess double, and ye shall have everlasting joy.

8 For I the LORD love that which is right, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will confirm your work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the peoples; all that saw them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.

10 ¶ I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of saving health; he has surrounded me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom he has arrayed me, and as a bride made up of his jewels.

11 For as the earth brings forth her shoot and as the garden causes her seed to spring forth so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the Gentiles.” ”