Articles Archives - Your Ashes for His Beauty

Building Beauty Out of Ashes

Brenda Strachan — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 04:23:55 +0000

To 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.” NKJV

On December 30th, 2022, I released my book “Building Beauty Out of Ashes.” I wanted to share a little about the book. A few years before I began writing, God kept nudging me to write what I was my inner healing experiences from my journal entries. I had already had my blog site up and running. After a few months of blogging, I got complacent and stopped blogging. I just kept writing in my journals and stopped there. I started to learn a lot about myself, and God had shown me a lot about my journey of inner healing after the divorce. Many of us know that God will always use our pain and brokenness to bring healing and glory to His name when we share what God did amid our pain. As I would share my knowledge of what I went through during my divorce and how I was healing, I would be encouraged by many to write a book. I took it as an Okay God, I hear you.

I struggled a bit with the thought that I would have to share intimate details about my life, my marriage, and the divorce. A part of me did not want to. I felt shame about what happened, and I honestly did not want people to know what happened during my divorce. I fought the idea of writing the book for months. But, if God calls you to it, you better obey. I said, “Okay, God, but you need to help me because this will not be easy!” I researched and found a book coach and publisher whom God put in my path. I began to write. God helped me to understand that the book was to be written to help anyone who is facing what I faced. My journey of inner healing was to shed light on what God can do when we allow Him to rebuild us after we have faced betrayal, divorce, and emotional trauma. Even if just one person reads the book and helps them heal and understand their journey, it accomplished what it was meant to do. Which is to glorify God.

In writing the book it helped me to still heal in areas I was still struggling. In those moments of sharing my pain, God met me and helped me to write as He comforted me. Many times, I would write with tears coming down my face as I released the pain of all the hurt. I could also feel God’s love encourage me to keep going. Building Beauty out of Ashes is about God revealing to me the deep wounds I carried that steamed from childhood up to the divorce with my husband. God wanted me to share how healing can come even when we face betrayal from those we love. I share my journey of finding inner healing in God’s word. God wants to restore all of us and rebuild us by removing all that hurts us deeply. God is faithful and will replace our ashes with His beauty which is His unconditional love for us. We all have a story to tell, a testimony to share and a book to write.

If you are interested in grabbing a copy of my book, it is available for purchase on Amazon. Click link below.

https://a.co/d/bBfrvMo

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Let It Go Before It Destroys You

Brenda Strachan — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 05:07:24 +0000

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 KJV

If your like me and love to watch all kinds of different movies than hopefully you will understand how I ended up watching this movie. Before I get into the movie and the details of it, I would like to first ask you a question?

How hard has it been for you to let go of something that was hurting you so much? Would you say it’s been easy to let go of something that caused you great pain, such as betrayal, divorce, or abuse? What about something that you have struggled with all your life that you know hurts you deeply but you just can’t seem to move past that deep rooted hurt?

I believe that there are many people out there including myself that are carrying deep wounds that they still are holding on to but just can’t seem to let it go in order for them to heal. Which leads me to the movie I watched.

I watched this movie called, “The Cleanse” and it was actually a very interesting movie, especially for me since I was able to view the movie from a spiritual perspective. The movie is about a man who’s name is Paul (if you watch the “Big Bang Theory” you will recognize the actor) and how he decides to go to a retreat in where he will need to participate in a detox cleansing program as part of the process to find healing for the pain he experienced after his breakup with his fiancé. Paul goes on this retreat after being interviewed and answering some questions and finds himself with 3 other people who joined the program. In order for him to complete the program and find healing for his emotional pain, he must drink a special detox juice that was made specifically for him based off of the pain or hurt he was carrying, so each person was given different detox drinks.

Paul drank all his juices and at the end of the night he began to release all the junk he was carrying by vomiting it out into the sink (yeah I know gross). The next day a noise draws his attention underneath the sink, he finds that the sink pipe was filled with some gunk that he released on to the floor after cleaning out the sink pipe. Paul stares at this blob on the floor, the blob suddenly starts to take form until it turns into a cute small little creature. In shock, he picks up the weird looking creature and realizes that this small creature was what he vomited. It was a manifestation of what he had released from his body after he drank the detox. Everyday this small cute little monster got bigger and bigger. The time at the retreat comes to an end and Paul must now meet with the creator of the program.

Paul is told that he must destroy this cute little creature before it gets bigger. Only problem was that he couldn’t let it go, he sympathized with it and was drawn to it, it was a part of him. It was either he destroyed it by throwing it in the fire or allow it grow into the large monster it was going to become. At the end he kills the cute little creature that became a hideous ugly monster. (There is more to the movie but I don’t want to give away all the details.) Paul ended up killing the creature, as much as it hurt him to destroy it, he killed it and the moment it died he felt free. What Paul destroyed was the hurt of his broken heart. That monster was a representation of the hurt of his wounded heart.

Like Paul, how many of us continue to hold on to something to the point that it starts to destroy us? How many of us are holding on to some type of pain, trauma, hurt, or offense? Like the little cute creature in the movie, the wounds that we carry start off small, without us realizing that the small wounds we carry feed off of other incidents that will cause these small wounds to become bigger and bigger wounds. Before you realize it that small seed of bitterness or unforgiveness becomes a huge stronghold in your life that controls and overpowers you. If you don’t let it go and release it to God, that deep hurt or deep wound will be used as a weapon from the enemy to destroy you.

The enemy wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and cheat you out of Gods promises for your life. The enemy will cause those small wounds of hurt to get bigger and bigger. Many of us have been wounded since we were children and we have held on to the pain for so long that it has already become a part of us. That deep hurt is now a huge monster in your life that dictates how you think, how you feel, how you live your life, and even how you treat others. When we begin the process of allowing God through the power of the Holy Spirit to visit the deep wounds of our soul and when the time comes for us to confront the monsters (demons) in our soul it becomes so hard to surrender what has been hurting us for so long. It becomes difficult to give and release the deep hurt to God that wants to take it from us and destroy it. We want to hold on to the pain because we have gotten so comfortable with it. The pain that we hide behind is used as a way to justify why we are victims and why we would should not let it go. The pain becomes our identity.

I have been through many years of pruning, and refining as I draw closer to God, I have found myself many times holding on to deep hurt that I just couldn’t let go of. The deep wounds in my soul were rooted years ago, and the enemy knew how to keep adding more hurt into my life so that the pain can get bigger and rooted deeper. The process and the journey of trusting God to take the pain away came in layers and much difficulty. But the more I surrendered the more at peace I was. Like Paul, once the monster (betrayal, trauma, offense, unforgiveness), whatever the monster represents in your life is destroyed, you will feel the release and peace of God come over you. Jesus died so that we can be free from all that the enemy uses to destroy us.

Forgiving those who hurt us, surrendering the pain of what was done to us allows God to fill those areas of pain with His unconditional love. I know that it will not be easy to let go of something that has hurt so deeply. Once we do, we can finally embrace the actual true freedom that comes from our heavenly Father. Surrender and lay at the feet of Jesus. Let Him heal you, and allow God to destroy that hurt once and for all. You deserve to be free, we all do. Get cleansed and let the Holy Spirit detox your soul from all the wounds, it will be worth it.

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Embracing Change (A Metamorphosis Journey)

Brenda — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 22:50:00 +0000

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].”
‭‭2 CORINTHIANS‬ ‭5:17‬ ‭AMP‬‬

What is actually a Metamorphosis?

Metamorphosis has several definitions, such as:

1- any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.

2- a form resulting from any such change.

And can also be defined as the transformation of a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.

A couple months ago I found a short article about Butterflies. After seeing a butterfly 3 times in one day I felt it impressed in my heart to just research butterflies. What I learned about butterflies was a beautiful but interesting description of what happens when a caterpillar enters its cocoon so that it can than emerge as the beautiful butterfly that it becomes. I read that the entire caterpillar breaks down inside the cocoon almost into like a soupy liquid form, so pretty much the entire caterpillar breaks down so that it can slowly rebuild itself back up. What I found interesting was that the heart also is broken down as part of the process.

As I read what happens inside the cocoon I couldn’t help but to relate. Even though I’m not turning into a soupy like mixture but the journey that I have been in on lately sure feels like I’m inside some cocoon. As I continue to get to know God more I realize that personal transformation sounds almost like the same process of the caterpillar. The changes that God helps us go through is not an easy process. Its very hard to embrace change when

#1. You don’t realize or know what areas need to change,

#2 When you don’t like change.

#3 When you don’t see the need to change. (For me it was known as Pride.) I thought,” Me change? For what? I’m perfectly fine.”

With God there is no staying the same, He makes all things new and I had to embrace change when everything I thought that was for me was slowly stripped away. A good paying job, your home, your family and marriage issues start surfacing and even your health starts acting up. For me, seeing my life get chaotic and frustrating pushed me towards God more. I didn’t know what to do, I was so disappointed at the things I was facing. Life was no longer going the way I expected it would go and I saw nothing wrong in the way I was living my life. Complacent! The truth is, you won’t change when you are comfortable.

I quickly learned that God has so much more in store for me and you than what we can even think or imagine. I believed the lie that this is it. Work, go home, cook, watch t.v, tend to the family and go to bed. That’s it! Life is good. Right? Well, not really. Don’t get me wrong I am in no way judging anyone who lives similar to this routine. Just know that there is more to life. A happy and joy filled life. I was missing out and God knew I was. Sometimes God allows us to be stripped of certain things or face certain trials because inside of each and everyone of us is something new. Something new that has been planted in us from the moment we’re formed in our mothers womb. In order to understand the purpose and the new we carry. We must seek Him for the answers and the revelation of what it is.

I didn’t know what that “new’ thing was? I was stuck on being complacent, living my life each day thinking that this it and there was no more to life than what I already had. In moments of loneliness and disappointment God began a work in me. He has begun to break down the old me and He is now rebuilding the new me. The process is not a quick and easy one. It becomes a journey of embracing change by letting go of the old mindsets, the false belief systems, and surrendering our broken hearts to embrace healed hearts. We have to learn to emerge from our cocoons (four walls) and embrace the beauty that comes from setting ourselves free from just living life in the same routine.

What will change look like? It can look like many things, such as: Writing a book, going back to school, starting a ministry, starting a business, going on a missions trip, or just taking care of you!

For me change was letting go of what I can’t control and giving God the control to do what only He can do. God restores, rebuilds, heals, transforms, and makes impossible things possible.

I pray that today, you will ask God this one simple question? Father, search my heart and show me what changes I need to embrace?

You might be surprised at what He will do. Take the limitations off and emerge has the beautiful butterfly does when she is set free.

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