Read Ezekiel 37:1-14. Notice verse 11: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” When all hope is lost, God uses the prophet Ezekiel, bringing him to the valley of dry bones where he is surrounded by skeletal remains of a mighty people now defeated. When God poses a preposterous possibility, “Can these bones live?” (v. 3), Ezekiel doesn’t dare offer his own answer. He says simply, “O Lord God, you know.”
What happens next in the Ezekiel story gives me the strength to face even my most challenging days. God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones. The dry bones come together and stand up, but there is no life in them. Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath. And those dry bones live! They actually live!
No matter how severe our valley or how dry our bones, we are never without hope. Neither are we cut off (Ezekiel 37:11). Jesus Christ is our hope. Jesus Christ will bring to life what was once dried, hopeless and forgotten.
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Just L.I.F.E. (Liberation is For Everyone!) by Angela T. !Khabeb in the July/August 2021 Gather magazine.
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