Ashley Reynolds.net

“Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?”
declares the LORD.
“This is the one I esteem:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
and trembles at my word.” Isaiah 66:2

Change. Most of the time, we dread it. Change could mean losing a job, changing jobs, a good friend moving away, going to a different school, moving to a different place, and so on. But God uses change in our life to shape and mold us. Change is a very big part of God’s plan for us. Change brings uncertainty, growth, and challenge.

A couple of months ago I started to pray for some sort of change to happen. Whatever that may be, I didn’t care. I just wanted God to change my circumstances. I was coming undone, reaching the end of my rope, and crying out for Him to change something. I was even pushing away loved ones, people who cared about me deeply.

My circumstances didn’t change, but God used my circumstances to change my heart. God began to take me through a lot of past wounds and unforgiveness. A lot of past hurts, bitterness, and regret that I had been holding onto for years. A lot of things I had been avoiding and were just to painful to face. Some things I knew had been rooted deep within my heart and other things I did not even know were there. But God was working and weaving out His plan in the midst of everything I did not understand. And He wanted me to lay my brokeness before Him so He could take me out of the old and faithfully create something far more beautiful than I ever could’ve created on my own. He brought me to a place of healing, restoration, and new life. It took my circumstances to bring me to this place of brokeness and God was there to meet me in it.

I was reading this book a couple of weeks ago and the chapter titled “Hope” really stirred my heart.

“Probably the most famous metaphor to ever come from the early followers of Christ is the butterfly. The imagery is that if people entrust their lives to Jesus, God will make them new creations. When you come to God and allow Him to re-create you, from that moment the old is past, and all things are made new. The word describing metamorphosis, the image of a caterpiller becoming a butterfly-same species, completely different. This describes a change that literally moves us from crawling to flying. It is neccessary change if we are going to journey to the future we were created to live, experience , to enjoy. Sometimes, we choose just to be a worm; at other times, our preference is to hide in the cocoon, but every now and again we choose to engage the difficult struggle of breaking out. It’s painful; it’s frustrating; it’s hard work. We might even wonder why God would make the cocoon so hard to escape from, never realizing it is the process itself that strengthens our wings and prepares us for flight. Once you have lift, once you have takeoff, it just might hit you-on its worst day, a butterfly flies better than a caterpillar on its best day.” ( Soul Cravings, Erwin Raphael McManus)

Change. Embrace it when it comes. Because God makes no mistakes. Even though we do, He works all things out for the good of those who love Him.(Romans 8:28, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose). We may be suffering for a season but with change comes new life, love, acceptance, forgiveness, restoration, healing, opportunities, adventure, character, strength, experience, humility, lessons, hope, and faith. He wants to bring you to a place brokeness so He can create more beauty in you than ever before!

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” James 4:10

“What we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!” 2 Cor.5:17