Ashes are my Beauty

Isaiah 48:18
“If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your well-being like the waves of the sea.”

The Sea is vast, 70% of world is sea/ocean. It is there because God made it that way… the waves move with the weather, and the tide moves with the moon, the waves do there job, sometimes they are gentle, and rolling, and sometimes they crash like hurricane or a tidal wave- they are called into motion by God. God alone controls the weather he chooses to preserve or destroy, in his perfect will and timing. He demonstrates his power on earth and over the waters by the act of creation itself.  He also displays his power over the elements through the life of his son, Jesus. Jesus sleeps in the middle of the storm in in Matthew. When in the middle of the sea his disciples frantically run around the boat, they wake him screaming for help it says in Matthew 8:24-26:

“Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”

The disciples say who is this, truly the son of god that the wind and waves obey him. He awakes and commands the elements to be still and all is calm. I find it inspiring on a spiritual level that he is sleeping amidst the waves of sea…it makes sense because he himself is our peace, HE IS PEACE.

Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you.”

He sleeps because he is God and perfect. He knows the beginning from the end, as
Isaiah 48:12 says:

“Listen to me, Jacob,
Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
I am the first and I am the last.

God knows that everything around him is temporary that he created and lives in the eternal. It dawned on me, if the Spirit of the Living God, the spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives in me, then peace lives in me at all times. Leviticus 26:11-12 says he dwells among us:

I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

His word also says he put his Spirit in us in John 14:15. That means after the death of Jesus, instead of dwelling among us, he now dwells in us…

John 14:15-17
If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to HELP YOU and BE WITH YOU FOREVER-the SPIRIT OF TRUTH. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees him not knows him. But you KNOW HIM, FOR HE LIVES IN YOU AND WILL BE IN YOU.

His word reminds us that the same Jesus we see in the Bible, is the same today as he was then in Hebrews 13:8:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

 

He is the same Jesus today! The veil was torn, he ascended into heaven, and our great God sent the Spirit of his son Jesus, to live in us, the Holy Spirit. He not only walks among us, he is in us, he is our helper, he intercedes for us, he speaks with the father and makes his ways know to us, he is with us.  John 14:26-27 says he teaches us ALL THINGS and leaves us PEACE:

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

I am not troubled or afraid.  The word also says in John 16:13-15 that he tells you things directly from the Father and what is to come:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

He says no matter what is going on in our lives, whatever the tsunami be that as Isaiah 54:10 says:

“Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

If we believe, truly believe, obey, read, pray, love, HE WILL MAKE HIMSELF KNOWN. There is no mistaking his voice, leading, and direction. If we live obediently as he commands, and trust his ways are better than ours, the outflow is peace.

Isaiah 43:15-16
I am the Lord, your Holy One,
Israel’s Creator, your King. ”
This is what the Lord says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,

He says he has called each one of us, before anything happens in our life, HE IS THERE, and if we obey the promise is peace in Isaiah 48:15-19:

“I, even I, have spoken;
yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
and he will succeed in his mission.
“Come near me and listen to this:
“From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
at the time it happens, I am there.”
And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me,
endowed with his Spirit.
This is what the Lord says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your well-being like the waves of the sea.
Your descendants would have been like the sand,
your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
nor destroyed from before me.”

I have hope, JESUS, which gives me peace. I can have peace amidst a sea of chaotic circumstances crashing around me. When my mind is on Jesus, the eternal, and I am led by the Spirit I can have peace to sleep wth waves of chaos crashing around my boat.  The river and ocean are unpredictable, but he leads us through the chaos:

Isaiah 43:1-2
But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

HE is always with me, I will not be forgotten and swept over.  I claim his truth and know he is Always Faithful, even to the end…

2 Corinthians 4:5-6
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.