Discovering Hope With James W. GollSample

What are Ashes Anyway?

He gives us beauty for ashes. But what are ashes anyway? I believe there are four things about ashes that are important for us to remember:

First, ashes are evidence of a previous fire. You might be feeling temporarily like nothing more right now than a pile of ashes, but that means previously there was a fire burning brightly. It all depends upon your perspective. You can look at the pile of your life and only see it as completely burned up. You can take that perspective and go into not just mourning but also sorrow, entering the downward spiral that will take you all the way into the pity party. And remember, that’s not pretty at any age.

Second, ashes are evidence of a sacrifice. Now this is how we can see the ashes if we look at them with a redemptive interpretation. Through that interpretation, we know that our sacrifice releases power. This is a principle throughout the Word of God. That’s why the Lord will say things to us like, Add fasting to your prayer. That’s a sacrifice. How differently would you look at the ashes in your life if you saw that they are releasing power into your life?

Third, do you know that ashes can help make an infertile field fertile? Two of the events we can witness in the earth that cause the greatest devastation—forest fires and volcanic eruptions—both lead to some of the most fertile soil you can get. In these cases, ashes become a potent ingredient that help make the desert blossom.

Fourth, ashes carry an aroma that ascends. Remember that Noah took eight people, counting himself, onto the great ship.

He took the animals, the clean and the unclean, the twos and the multiples, and then the flood comes. They were probably tossed around. They lost almost everything they had ever known. And, eventually, the rain stopped, the ark settled, and Noah sent out a dove. It came back the first time, the second time it brought back an olive leaf, and the third time it did not come back. This was the sign that the waters had receded, and Noah could leave the ark.

The first thing Noah did after he and his family came back to the renewed earth was offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Scripture says regarding that sacrifice, “And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice” (Genesis 8:21 NLT). Why did he smell the aroma? Because ashes carry an aroma; they ascend. They don’t just stay here, but they carry the aroma of our sacrifice to God.

The last thing God breathed in became an element of the next thing God exhaled. God breathed in the pleasing aroma of sacrifice, and he exhaled the declaration, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man … and I will never again destroy every living thing” (Genesis 8:21 NASB). He then continues by renewing his covenant with mankind and makes even further promise that “never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Genesis 9:15 NASB).

God even sets a rainbow in the sky to remind everyone, including himself, of his promise. Every time you see that colorful bow in the sky, God is telling you that at the end of the storm, there is a rainbow of promise. When we build our lives on these realities, we can shift circumstances and atmospheres from darkness to light and from cursing to blessing.

Ashes prove God’s fire has burned brightly in our lives. They demonstrate we have sacrificed deeply and personally unto the Lord. They become an ingredient in our lives becoming fertile and fruitful again. And they carry a pleasing aroma up to heaven, where what God inhales becomes an element of the next thing he exhales. To sum it up, the ashes in your life prophesy the rising of your purpose and destiny in the Lord.