Daily Delight Devotional – Friday, July 14 2023

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

– Isaiah 61:3, KJV

God specializes in taking ashes, which are ugly and useless and make them beautiful and useful. God gave a vision to Isaiah that Israel was going to be taken away into captivity, yet God promised to turn to beauty their ashes. A beautiful tree can be cut into firewood and then reduced to ashes. Ashes are the left-over of that which has been destroyed. Man’s sin has brought about great sadness, ugliness and ashes to the human race. Joseph’s life had been turned to ashes, yet God intervened and turned those ashes into a thing of beauty. Christianity is all about allowing God to take the ashes of your life and make them beautiful.

Release yourself and give your life to God who can take something miserable and worthless and make it into something precious and beautiful.

Insight: Yet God took that which was ugly, the bruised and broken body of Jesus and made it into a thing of beauty – the resurrection body of Jesus.

Prayer: Father, turn every form of ashes in my life to beauty in the name of Jesus.

Further Bible Reading: Isaiah 61:1-3
Daily Bible Reading: Leviticus 10:1-7