As this year comes to a quiet close, this morning was a heartwarming time speaking about being made whole in God, and Him turning our hurts and ashes into opportunities for love and service, at the Kallos “Daughter Arise!“ Conference with 200 young princess warriors.
Truly, God never wastes any of our tears, He never glosses over any of our scars. As we give them to Him, He can use our old wounds to heal, touch and transform other lives.
While this has to be one of my most personal experiences sharing about my struggles with depression and anorexia through my youth, it was also a wonderful way to end the year.
It was only as I prepared for the sharing, that I came to understand the richness of these words:
“Blessed be God… who has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
How it blew my mind to realize the tremendous power He has given us through the new identity we have in Him, and the rich inheritance of every spiritual blessing He gives to every one of us.
Before we chose Him, He already chose us- way before the foundation of the world.
As I tears flowed in the crowd, I saw hearts moved to rededicate their lives to serve God wholeheartedly, as the girls gained a deeper insight of us being “God’s handiwork, created in God to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).
… in advance. So it should only make sense that He did indeed chose us before the foundation of this world, and in spite of the broken and hurting realities we might find ourselves in, that is not the end of our stories.
He has prepared our journeys from beginning to the end, and has prepared good works in advance for us, to turn our ashes into something beautiful.
While the process might be painful, it is only because He is lovingly pruning us, to become more beautiful, more fruitful still.
Remember, that we perceive to be broken and flawed in the present, God can see the finished product, brought to maturity and perfection at the end.
What we cannot see or perceive, He can.
Our ashes, His glory.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and does, it remains alone.
But if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
– John 12:2