Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | On January 12, 2020, Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupted.  Our friends Len and Mari Cris Faustino had developed a farm located 16 kilometers from the volcano–filled with crops, fruit trees, coffee trees, rare plants and a number of animals. When the volcano erupted, Mari Cris posted pictures on Facebook of the gray, ash-coated farm that looked as if they had been taken with black-and-white film, and we wondered if the farm would ever again produce the beautiful crops for which it had become well known.

Then just three months later, on Easter Sunday, Mari Cris posted fifty pictures of the most beautiful flowers and plants you could hope to see, with this comment, “Our farm is blooming—thanks to the volcanic ash!”

Have you had an eruption in your life that has left you seemingly in ruins? You aren’t sure if you’re going to survive, let alone ever thrive again? Notice that David felt exactly that way. In Psalm 6 he wrote:

I am sick at heart…

How long, O Lord, until you restore me?

Return, O Lord, and rescue me…

My vision is blurred by grief.

Yes, David poured out his heart to God. And God answered. Just a few verses later, David wrote,

…the Lord has heard my weeping.

The Lord has heard my plea;

the Lord will answer my prayer.

Take heart! Just as God used the ash on the Faustino farm as fertilizer to nourish the plants, He can use the painful circumstances in your life to cause beauty to come that exceeds your hopes and dreams. Trust Him. He will complete His work in your life. Just you wait and see.