TO CHEW ON: "'And I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it.' says the Lord." Ezekiel 37:14
Ezekiel's startling vision of a vast valley of bones reassembling into bodies, their coming back to life as he speaks God's words over them, catches the imagination. Hear their words of explanation as to why they are in that state: "Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!" They were, after all, a people in exile.
But God is a God who breathes life into dead things. "Then you shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves...I will put My Spirit in you and you shall live..."
We may identify with those hopeless bones for a number of reasons:
- Perhaps we're away from God and in spiritual exile ourselves.
- Perhaps we're tired and burned out.
- Perhaps we're discouraged from long praying and working with no visible results.
Whatever the reason, let's claim the promise of God's Spirit who, along with breathing new life into our hopeless dead selves and circumstances:
- Gives unusual wisdom and insight (Genesis 41:38-39; Daniel 4:8).
- Helps us to want to live wisely and according to His principles (Ezekiel 36:27).
- Guides us into truth (John 14:17).
- Actually lives within us (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).
- Teaches us (1 John 2:27).
PRAYER: Dear God, I bring my hopeless situation of ___ to You today. Please breathe on it by Your Spirit. Help me to be Your agent in it, bringing to it Holy Spirit resources. Amen.
MORE: Cathedrals Quartet - "Dry Bones"
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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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