Beauty for Ashes🦋🤍

Sometimes life leaves us standing in ashes…
ashes of disappointment,
heartbreak,
loss,
fear,
and prayers we thought would unfold differently.

But God never wastes ashes.

The same places that broke us can become the very places He rebuilds us. 🦋

In this episode, we talk about healing, surrender, restoration, and the promise found in Isaiah 61:3 — that God gives beauty for ashes.

If you’ve been carrying heaviness, grieving silently, or trying to find hope again… this episode is for you.

Your story is not over.
Beauty is still coming from this. ✨

#BeautifulMe #BeautyForAshes #HealingJourney #FaithAndHealing #ChristianPodcast #EmotionalHealing #Restoration #TrustGod #PurposeInPain #BeautifulMeMinistry

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Good morning, good morning, good morning. God is good all the time, all the time, God is good. Welcome to the Beautiful Me Empowerment Ministry Podcast, a space where healing meets truth, identity is restored, and we learn how to walk boldly in who God has called us to be. I'm your host, Monique Anderson, certified empowerment coach, licensed therapist, and your sister on this journey of healing, faith, and purpose. How are you doing today? I hope that you are doing well. Uh, guess what? It is Thursday, it is almost the end of the week. We made it, and we, if I was in church, we would say God is good, and then all the time, all the time, God is good. Hallelujah. Uh, this morning, I'm just so grateful. You know, God is like I said, I always say God is God in, and every encounter with God changes you, every single encounter with God changes you. And I don't know about you, but I I just want to I just want to encounter God. There is so much there there's deeper depths and higher heights that you can get to in God, and the deeper you go, the higher you go, you know, it's the more that you know he changes you from the inside out. And when you experience him, even though the storms come, the storms may rise, whatever comes, you know, you can still experience that peace in the midst of the storm that the Bible talks about, uh, peace that surpasses understanding and joy, unspeakable joy. And so I'm just so grateful to God this morning, and I pray that you will encounter him uh today. Hallelujah. Father, today we come before you carrying the weight of what we have lost, what we do not understand, and what still hurts deeply within us. Some of us, God, are standing in ashes right now, ashes of disappointment, ashes of heartbreak, ashes of grief, ashes of fear, ashes of shame, ashes of dreams that did not unfold the way we imagined. But Father, we thank you that you are still God in the ashes, you are still faithful in the ruins, you are still present in the pain, you are still working in the waiting, and you are still rebuilding what feels broken. And so, Daddy God, remind us today that ashes are not the end of our story. Help us, Daddy, to trust you even when life feels uncertain. Help us to remember and to surrender the pieces we keep trying to carry on our own. Daddy, we ask you this morning to heal every wounded place, restore every weary heart, lift every heavy spirit, and for the one listening who feels forgotten, remind them that they are seen. For the one battling hopelessness, remind them there is purpose beyond this pain. For the one struggling to believe again, Father, breathe fresh faith into their spirit. Father, today we exchange our mourning for joy, we exchange our heaviness for praise, we exchange our fear for peace, we exchange our ashes for beauty, and God let this episode be a reminder that you are still making all things new in the name of Jesus Christ. I pray. Amen. Today we're going to talk about beauty for ashes. And I want you to just imagine, imagine standing in the middle of what used to be your life. You can close your eyes, the fire has already passed through, the smoke has settled, the silence is loud. All around you are ashes, ashes of prayers that seemed unanswered, ashes of relationships that ended, ashes of dreams that collapsed, ashes of versions of yourself you thought would survive, and there you stand trying to understand how something so beautiful could become rubble overnight. But then God steps into the ashes because God is not afraid of the mess, he's not intimidated by the ruin, not repelled by the broken pieces, he kneels in the middle of your devastation and begins creating again. Because while people see ashes as the end, God sees ashes as soil for transformation. The same God who formed man from dust still knows how to breathe life into empty places. The same God who resurrected Jesus from the grave still knows how to resurrect hope. The same God who allowed the fire also promises redemption after it. So maybe this season is not proof that God abandoned you. Maybe it is proof, hallelujah, that He is rebuilding you. Maybe the ashes are not your burial ground. Maybe they are the beginning of your becoming. Hallelujah. I pray even in this moment that you would have encountered God. Hallelujah. In Isaiah 61, verse three, it says, To appoint unto them that morn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And scripture is rooted in imagery, right? Ashes in biblical times represented grief, mourning, loss, repentance, devastation, and even brokenness. People would literally sit in ashes when they were overwhelmed by sorrow. Ashes were the evidence that something had burnt down, something had died, something had been destroyed. And yet, God says, I will give you beauty for ashes. And when he said this, he doesn't mean after pretending the ashes never happened. He's not saying this by denying the pain, and he's not talking about skipping the process. But what he is saying is that I, God, will take the very evidence of your suffering and transform it into something beautiful. That means the betrayal did not destroy you, it means the divorce did not define you, it means the trauma did not cancel your purpose, it means the disappointment did not disqualify your destiny, it means the waiting season is not wasted. God specializes in restoration, and sometimes we think when we think about beauty, we think that beauty means perfection, but biblical beauty often comes through surrender, healing, refinement, and transformation. And so this morning, to the man or the woman who survived depression and still chooses to love again, let me tell you something. That is beauty. To the person who endured rejection but still walks in kindness, that is beauty. To the mother who carries will cries silently, yet keeps showing up, that is beauty. The believer who wrestles with doubt yet continues trust in God, that is beauty. Real beauty is not the absence of scars, it is the evidence that God kept you through what should have broken you. And I'm always going to look at things from a psychological perspective. Psychologically, pain pain has a way of reshaping our identity. I spoke about the power of words yesterday, and the fact that we should not speak certain words in our pain. Right? We should ensure that when we're in those places of brokenness, we are so keen to speak life and declare the word of God as hard as it may be, engage the Holy Spirit, find scriptures and declare it over you because again, pain can reshape your identity, trauma can leave you feeling unworthy, ashamed, invisible, fearful, disconnected from self. And so you start speaking these negative things about yourself and sowing these negative seeds over your life. When Isaiah 61, verse 3 tells us that God gives beauty for ashes, healing happens when we begin allowing God to redefine us instead of our wounds defining us. You're not defined by the pain you've experienced. I am not defined by my divorce. I am not defined by the brokenness. I am not defined by the rejection. I'm not defined by my loss. Neither are you. Ashes will say, I lost something. But beauty says God is still creating something. And sometimes the hardest part of healing is believing that something beautiful can still come from what hurt you. And I remember when God told me beautiful me. I was asking God if He were crazy. Because when I looked at my life, there was nothing beautiful about it. And I don't just mean I mean beauty in every sense. So on the outward, I never felt beautiful. And then with everything that happened to me, all of the trauma, I was that girl who used to use my trauma, my pain to label myself as messy and um too far gone, and uh uh who it can't. There's this, and I and we need to talk about this. Can anything good come out of Zion? And so when God told me beautiful meal, listen, we wrestled like Jacob. I wrestled with God about that, but here I am, and I love this song. It has I've been playing this song on repeat from yesterday, from the ashes, you make beautiful things. I know because you did it in me, my God, and so God is still creating something, God is still creating something in you, and we see it through scripture where God repeatedly brings life from barren places. Hallelujah. Joseph's pit became a palace, Ruth's grief became legacy. Leah's oh my god, I love the story. Oh god, Leah's story, Leah's rejection became generational impact, and I talked about Leah's story um a few days ago or so where Leah was rejected. But if we look at where Leah was buried, Leah was the one that um was not wanted, but out of Leah's rejection came generational impact. Jesus Peter's failure became leadership, Jesus' crucifixion became resurrection, and this is the nature of God towards us. This is the nature of God, He restores, He rebuilds, He renews. That's just who He is, and I I just love God, like I just love God. There's this song I always play in my car. I remember one morning I was playing it, and like it was just on repeat, probably 10 or so time. And my son was looking at me every time I started over, and he says, I love God, you ain't love God. What's wrong with you? I I love God, God is just so amazing, and we see in Isaiah 61, verse 3, right? It speaks about a divine exchange. It says, Ashes to beauty, mourning to joy, heaviness to praise, and it's a promise that God can take pain, loss, trauma, disappointment, shame, and brokenness and transform it into something beautiful and purposeful. That is how beautiful me empowerment ministry came about. It is God using the ashes, the rubbles of my life, of my past, and turning it into something beautiful and purposeful. And if he did it for me, he can do it for you. And I am believing God this morning for you that he is going to show up and just show out like the God that he is, our restorer, our way maker in the word of Sinach, miracle worker, promise keeper. That is who he is. Nothing is impossible with God. If a painter can transform even ashes, paint person, artists, right? They they they they they can transform ashes and and even so many things that we would dis discard and and call them garbage. We will throw them in the bin. These are some of the things that these amazing artists, whom God have blessed with the talent, and they create these beautiful paintings that people go up, they put them on exhibition, exhibition, and people go and purchase them for how much money look at gold, gold has to go through a process. Look at the process of making grapes, they step on grapes. Well, now they have proper, you know, machines, but in the past, they would step on the grapes, they would crush the grapes. If we look at the wheat, wheat was threshed. I mean, oh my god. So I'm believing this morning for you. I'm lifting my faith this morning for you that God will not waste ashes. Yeah, the very place that broke you, I am declaring it today, it will become the place he beautifies. What felt like devastation will become the testimony of your restoration. So, today, if you are in a season, an ashy season right now, you know, cry if you need to, rest if you need to, heal honestly, grieve what was lost, but do not lose hope because God still turns ashes into beauty. There's another song, I don't remember if it is Brandon Lake who sings it, but and and Maverick City, but it talks about he turns graves into gardens. My god, sometimes the most beautiful versions of us are born after the fire. Hallelujah! God is such an amazing God. If you are listening today, or whichever time you listen and life feels heavy, if you feel disappointed, confused, broken, exhausted, or emotionally worn down, I want you to know your ashes are not proof that you failed, they are proof that you survived. And survival alone is not the end goal because God will restore you. That's who He is. He desires restoration, he desires healing and wholeness for you. Sometimes we look at our lives and only see what burned down, but God looks at our lives and sees what he's about to build and to rebuild. The enemy. He wants you to believe it's over. He wants you to believe that you've missed your chance. He wants you to believe that you're too broken. He wants you to believe that you've made too many mistakes and your story cannot recover. But the word of God says differently. The word of God, He says that I can still use these broken pieces. Naomi experienced deep grief, yet God called her. Elijah battled emotional exhaustion, but God still called him. Thomas had doubt, but God still called him. David had failure, but God still called him. Moses had insecurity, but God still called him. Peter had denial, but God still called him. God still used them. God restored them. So today, stop measuring your future by your current ashes. God is not limited by what fell apart. He is not intimidated by what hurt you. And he is definitely not finished with your story. Sometimes the greatest beauty comes after the break-in. And sometimes the strongest faith is formed in the fire, and sometimes the deepest healing begins in the ashes. So sit back in your chairs or in your bed and breathe again. Hope again. Trust again. Because beauty is still coming from this. Hallelujah, Father. Thank you for meeting us in this space today. Thank you for being close to the brokenhearted and near to those who are weary in spirit. And as we leave this episode, God help us to remember that our pain is not pointless and our ashes are not wasted. Teach us to trust you in the rebuilding season. Give us strength for the process. Give us peace in the uncertainty, and give us courage to heal, honestly. Where there is heaviness, release joy. Where there is fear, release peace. Where there is shame, release freedom. And where there is grief, release comfort. Lord, restore identity where trauma distorted it. Restore hope where disappointment weakened it. Restore faith where life has been overwhelming. And Daddy, let every listener know that they are still valuable, still chosen, still loved, and still becoming everything you created them to be. We surrender every broken piece into your hands because if you can resurrect dead things, you can certainly rebuild us too. In Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen and amen. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. Sometimes life leaves us standing in ashes. Ashes of disappointments. And sometimes the prayers we thought would unfold. We the prayers we thought would unfold differently, but God never wastes ashes. And the same place that broke us can become the very places He rebuilds us. God bless you. And remember, your story is not over. Beauty is coming from this. Have an amazing day. And remember that Mo loves you, but God loves you even more. This has been the Beautiful Me Empowerment Ministry Podcast. Like or love, share, leave a comment. God bless you. God bless you.