I am borrowing the title of this post from a section of Beth Moore's updated Breaking Free study. Thanks to my mom's relentless pursuit to get Leon and me to watch a video from this study, we have heard a lot lately of how God is so faithful to bring beauty out of the ashes in our lives. And as good as this message is, I do not think it would have spoken to us as much if we had not experienced this exact thing in our own lives.
When Leon and I met, we were just climbing out of the ashes in our lives which were brought on by divorce, pain from church experiences, broken engagements, and betrayal on all different levels. As we had been working through that pain, and rediscovering who God is in it all, we met each other, and helped each other see a different side of God, life, and reality. We fell in love very quickly, got married, and now have this incredible new baby boy to show for it. And what's more, is that we are more complete people as a result of having come through the ashes in our lives.
So not only did God alone bring us through the pain that people in our lives had brought upon us, but in such a short time, He brought us to the incredible marriage that we both only dreamed about, and now he brought us this precious gift of a perfect baby boy. And in our lives, we can certainly say that God has brought beauty out of ashes in Leon's life and in my life, and has made up for the time we had lost to a greater degree than we could have ever anticipated, just like He said He would!
Below is a verse that got me through so much heartache about 2 years ago. In my life, it was a promise from God that He would make up for everything that had been taken from me. My prayer is that everyone will know and believe that whatever you have gone through or are going through, God is faithful to make up for it, and bless you beyond your wildest dreams if you just trust Him to do so. I am not just speaking truth from a book, but I know this to be true in my own life. So just trust, and look forward to the day when God will fully restore everything and will make up for all that was ever taken from you!
"I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten."
Joel 2:25
Joel 2:25
beautiful, lauren. you have an amazing story that god has given you and i love how i have gotten to witness some of it over the past couple years! i love that verse, too. god is faithful!!!
ReplyDeleteLauren, I saw your blog post on my FaceBook news feed and I had to check it out. I love reading other people's blogs and writing in my own. This post was so interesting to me because not only did I also read Beth Moore's book, Breaking Free, but it is why I named my blog Beauty For Ashes a couple years ago. I too know the importance of the study and what it's like to see God turn the horrible things into beauty, and it is awesome to see someone elses take on it! I am so glad you experienced God's faithfulness like I did and it was just too crazy I had to say something to you! That's awesome!
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