Friday, 14 December 2012

Beauty for Ashes



Beauty for Ashes

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
He will give: beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness.
Isaiah 61:3, TLB.

TODAY’S WORD
Everyone has experienced hurt and disappointment. We’ve all been burnt by life. But God doesn’t want us to sit in the ashes of the past; He wants to trade our brokenness for healing. He wants to give us beauty for our ashes. The key is that we have to be willing to give up the ashes in order to receive the beauty. You can’t have both because the old has to go before the new can come.

Today, are you willing to trust Him with your past hurts? Are you willing to let go of the pain, to forgive others and yourself so you can move forward in freedom? Don’t waste another day sitting in the ashes. The past is over, but your future remains. Let God give you joy instead of mourning, and let Him make something beautiful out of the ashes of your life today!

PRAYER FOR TODAY
God, thank You for promising to sweep away the ashes of my past and give me something beautiful in their place. I choose to give them up to You and receive Your healing and restoration in my life in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

***
“God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you.... Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory.” (1 Peter 4:10-11 NLT)
When God gives, he holds nothing back. He gives you every spiritual blessing available in the storehouses of Heaven (Ephesians 1:3), and he meets your every need.
Do you know what that means? It means you are free to be abundantly generous because God is taking care of you. He wants us to bless others on his behalf. We receive from God, then we give to others: “Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it” (1 Peter 4:10 MSG).
As Pastor Rick has been teaching, God is generous, so he wants us to become generous. It is a Jesus-like characteristic. Since we belong to Jesus 24/7 and our generosity is unlimited when guided by the Holy Spirit and energized by the life of Christ within us, we need to apply more creativity to our generosity.
We often complain about the superficial materialism that has overtaken Christmas. Godly generosity is the antidote to superficial materialism. Give some serious, intentional thought to how you can be generous this Christmas season, not in the sense of excessive gift giving but rather in helping and blessing those in need.
Talk About It
  • Who are the people in your life whom God wants you to bless this Christmas?
  • In what ways are you teaching your children or people how to be generous?

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