Do You Feel Dead Inside?
Recovery from a dry-bone experience
Again, He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you so that you live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will grow back flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you so that you live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 37: 4–6
When looking over my many years, I recall experiences that made me feel like a set of dry bones mentioned in Ezekiel. Life would throw curve balls that sucked out all my vitality.
The nation of Israel had a curve ball experience when through their disobedience they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians.
Ezekiel, the son of a priest, had a vision from God of a valley of dry bones. God connected the bones and added organs, muscles, and skin. Finally, He breathed into the life of these dry bones life.
This vision was to show the rebirth of the Israeli nation. It was a message of hope given by God to the Jews. This message would impart to the nation that their captivity would be short-lived and that God would eventually bring restoration.
Could you use a message of hope and restoration?
Jesus told us that He is the vine, and to stay alive and fruitful, we must remain connected to this vine of life. When life is tough, we lose hope. We slowly lose vitality when we are disobedient by separating ourselves from God.
God never lets go of us, but sometimes when we, like Peter, take our eyes off Christ and focus on the wave of problems, we let go of Him. However, God reaches out His hand, and if we focus on Christ taking hold of His hand, this is what He will do:
First: He will give us a new heart that beats with peace.
Second: He will give us muscles of His strength to carry on.
Third: He will provide us with the skin of protection so that we can relax in Him, knowing He will hold us together.
Fourth: He will breathe life into us through His Holy Spirit.
There is more to the valley-of-dry-bones story. In Ezekiel 34:25–26 God says,
I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing.
God will breathe life into our dry-bone experience and heap on top of us His many blessings! In this world, our wilderness, God keeps us safe to sleep peacefully in the woods of pain, suffering, illness, and sorrow. However, the beast, Satan, can never penetrate our hearts once we have been made new in Christ.
We are not guaranteed a life without trials, but we are guaranteed love, strength, peace, perseverance, faith, and an everlasting life.
