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Isaiah 61:3
\n\u201cTo console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the midst of life, God reflects His heart for humanity, coming into our broken world to manifest His power and glory out of His passionate love for us. He sent His Son, Jesus, into our world as a gift, so that we could receive grace through His death on the cross, bringing us back from ashes to beauty, giving us the oil that brings joy, and writing a new song in our hearts of praise.<\/p>\n
He takes away the condemnation of sin and plants us in the water of life, so that we become trees of righteousness through His work in us.<\/p>\n
The world is a broken place, filled with pain and many stories that people cannot carry on their own. Some seem successful in life, but it is only an appearance on the outside. What is important is the inner world of a person, because what overflows from within affects our lives. When my heart is in pain, it is reflected on my face. When I am hard inside, it is reflected in how I serve. When I am disappointed, it can determine my faith.<\/p>\n
I need God to restore my faith, love, and hope where I have been hurt. I need His oil to heal my wounds where there has been pain. I need my heart to abide in His presence. This process starts in the inner world of a person, in the heart, where everything else happens naturally in our lives.<\/p>\n
In our broken hearts, this is where God comes\u2014not pretending that I can deal with everything, but acknowledging that I need His grace to restore me. I know I feel this, and I experience this, but I come to Him with it and ask for the grace that is available, which comes from His throne and His goodness.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s passion is for my heart. Oh, how He desires to give us beauty for ashes! It is about faith, allowing Him to enter into my reality and align my heart with His reality. I bring Him my ashes, allowing His beauty to cover my mourning and allowing His oil to be poured out.<\/p>\n
Jesus, there on the cross, poured Himself out fully, without doubt, so that grace would be available to us. Jesus is the new reality of my life, determined by His gift of grace. This is the gift of God that forms me and transforms me into all that God is in His fullness. The price on the cross was fully paid, so that I can return to the place where I belong: in His presence, in my Father\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
This is what Jesus did: He brought us back from formal rules and religious acts that we try to fulfil so that we can come to Him. He says, \u201cCome to Me.\u201d Through Jesus, I can stay in the Father\u2019s presence because of His passion and love.<\/p>\n
This grace of God is not my work to fix the reality of my life or the state of my lost soul. Grace is what makes sinners righteous through Jesus. Grace is God\u2019s work in us, from beginning to end. I just need faith to accept that reality, faith that opens my eyes to see what He has done, opens my heart to believe and receive the hope and love poured out upon us.<\/p>\n
Not because we deserve it, and not because God pities us, but because He loves us. Oh, how much He loves us! Who am I that God would die for a sinner like me<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Isaiah 61:3 \u201cTo console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.\u201d In the midst of life, God reflects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csabakaroyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}