“… To give unto them beauty for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3)
In the hands of God, the awful becomes awe-inspiring. God specializes in things thought impossible. He doesn’t need men to offer Him their wholeness; He receives their brokenness. It is when we believe we are well and doing quite nicely without Him that He is hands off. We certainly know how to ruin good things. We can be given every break in life and still make an ugly mess of things.
There is only one guarantor of success: is your life in God’s hands or are you doing life without Him? God will not take control of your life. You will have to give it Him. And what you give Him will not be pretty; it will be the mess you made of it. But He will not refuse the broken pieces of your life because He is a great Redeemer. He knows how to bring the most glorious good out of even the most shameful wrong.
Every person is presently on one of two paths, headed to either glory or shame. No matter how ruined and ugly your life may be today, it is headed toward restoration and glory if it is in God’s hands. And no matter how together and beautiful it may be today, it is headed toward destruction if it is in your hands.
In the beginning, God’s Spirit hovered over ruin and chaos and brought forth a new world filled with the goodness and glory of God. He does the same today in the life of everyone who will let Him.