beauty will rise

Lord, when you were cast down you lifted us up. Cast me down with you, Lord.

Unless a grain of seed fall to the ground and die, it remains fruitless. God is the great sower. If he would have you cast down, it is only because he would produce beauty in you.

It is not that beauty comes in spite of ashes; it is that beauty cannot come without ashes.

This is an unpopular message, but he is not asking us to do anything that he has not done himself. Nothing that clings to its own life can ever be resurrected for it never dies to itself. Only that which dies can be raised to life again.

If we have no sorrow for sin, we have no comfort either, for consolation is predicated on the need to be consoled.

Mourn for your need today. It is not a question of whether you have need; all of us have need. It is a question of whether you know your need.

What is your need? Of course, we all need forgiveness, but of what particularly do you need to be forgiven? At the very moment you confess your specific need, the sower casts a pregnant seed into the fertile soil of your heart. Beauty will rise from the ashen ground. You are forgiven and a new day can begin. He will water your tilled heart now with tenderness, with care. There is no more precious prayer you can make than to say to him “Cast me down, Lord” for, with God, to be cast down is to be raised up. And this is his heart’s desire for you: to raise you up.

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. -John 12:24