Jan. 6, 2009
Finding Treasures in The Ashes
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Over the past several years I have had a number of opportunities to give my testimony. It would have been easier, after the first time of writing out my testimony, to have simply used the same notes the next time I spoke, but for some reason I always felt the need to write out my story again. Though of course the general facts of the story never changed, after the first few times of writing the facts over again, I begin to notice that I was learning something new from my own story each time. I noticed that each time I prepared my material I learned something that was not only healing for me, but something new that I could bring focus to as the point of my story for others. I am quite convinced that God has used each re-writing of my testimony to show me just how much He was with me every step of the way through a horrifically painful period of my life. I believe through each trip back in time He reveals to me just where and how He answered my prayers during those very difficult years. To be sure, we should spend time in repentance over sins and mistakes, meditate on why a certain event may have occurred and what we may have done to cause it. But after repenting and correcting any wrong behavior we should not continue to be immobilized because of regret. Negative life experiences can be like finding treasures in the ashes. The ashes are those experiences that have caused the pain, heartache, regret and guilt, and the treasures are the things we learn from the experience. It is much like digging through the cold ashes of something that has burned and finding beautiful treasures and precious gems that have actually been refined and made more beautiful by the fire. We should not allow a negative experience or trial to pass without asking God to show us the treasure He has for us in the ashes. Good things can come from bad experiences but we have to be open in order for God to bring these things to our awareness. We need to be determined that our trials and negative experiences will make a positive difference in not only our lives but in someones else's life, as well. We can do the latter by sharing our testimony. We glorify God when we glean everything we can from a bad experience and use it for personal, emotional and spiritual growth. When we are determined to turn our negative life experiences into something positive we are truly finding the treasures in the ashes. |
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May. 5, 2009 - Untitled Comment
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