Something God wants us to hear

I have an unfinished post that has several updates but I decided to put that one on hold to share with you something that I know God wants us to understand. I will post the updates in a few days.
Will (BJ) and I are on the last day of a fast and there are 3 things we have been focused on during this fast; the adoption, our friend who has come under considerable attack from the enemy and on a personal note we have been praying for an improvement in our diets (aka sugar!) This morning I was praying during my run (it is always a God thing when I complete a run during a fast b/c they are slow, painful and at times treacherous!) and I was asking God to empower us to break this fast tomorrow in a Godly manner and to strength us both to overcome our love affair with sugar. This seems like a relatively simple matter and as I prayed I was not expecting God to knock me over with the depth and knowledge that He hit me with this morning, but thank God He always exceeds my expectations. God brought me this:
Isaiah 61:3
"...to give them beauty for ashes
...joy for mourning
...praise for their burden..."
Jennie, give me your ashes and I will bring you My beauty. It took me a second, I am often slow with God, but He was kind enough to explain. What has my addiction to sugar brought me? Nothing but ashes, ashes of my body as I have willingly taken in substances that bring harm to this temple He has blessed me with. Nothing but ashes, ashes of body and mind as I have substituted a substance for God's best in my life. Let's be honest ALL of our ungodly addictions bring us nothing but ashes, as we cater to our addictions of food, nicotine, alcohol, drugs, pornography, materialism, and the list goes on and on, we are piling ashes into our bodies, minds, souls and spirits and those ashes bring us mourning and heavy burdens. Look at your life, are you stockpiling ashes? Ashes as we burn up our bodies as we pollute them with things God never intended for us to consume, ashes of our burned up talents and skills that are being wasted b/c we are to burdened and broken by our addictions, ashes of our relationships that have been damaged and splintered by the toxic things we choice to bring into our lives, ashes from the ministries we never poured ourselves into, ashes from the squandered financial resources that He has given us that we wasted on our own lustful desires, are they there? Can you feel them? Are they a heavy burden that saddens and weakens you? They do me. God is saying to us all " your ashes for my BEAUTY!" Beauty as I bring healing to your body, a wholeness to your mind, restoration to your relationships, blessings to your finances! All we have to do is lay the ashes caused by our addictions down at His feet and walk away from them.

Beauty for ashes...Joy for mourning...praise for our burdens... I am in! That is a deal I want to make and I know God wants you to make the same trade. We all are struggling with something or somethings and I promise you these things of the world are bringing us nothing but ashes. Every moment, every second that you are hit with that temptation cry out to God and remind Him of His promises to us, beauty for ashes, God, we want your beauty for our ashes.

What has this world brought us? Ashes that has soiled and dirtied our bodies, minds, and souls, but not anymore. When we lay it down it is replaced by His beauty. May God strengthen us as we exchange our ashes for His beauty, our mourning for His joy and our burdens for His praise.