“’For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you..; you will be my people, and I will be your God.'”
“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’
“Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!.. I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”’” Ezekiel 36:24-27a,28b; 37:1-6
How broad the reach of the promises of God! His message through Ezekiel swathed a scattered and spiritually-drought-stricken Israel with the life-giving water of far-reaching hope. He would make new their home, their hearts, and their habits by breathing in them His life and renewing affections and attitudes.
God is the Source and Renewer of life. His pledge to return His people to their land applied to restored relationships and fruitfulness. His work might be gradual but will surely be real. Step by step they would be cleansed from inside out, and would learn new breathing: exhale fear, inhale trust, exhale worry, inhale peace, exhale despair, inhale hope. (Ezekiel 37:7-10,12-14,23)
What prompts waning desire for vibrant fellowship, zeal for serving others? Have I turned inward in focus and provincialism? Has concern for others turned to protection of comforts and selfish rights? Maybe separation from loved ones by distance or sad circumstance has cause us to feel bereft, or a turn in health or a catastrophic event that shrouds the future has caused us to withdraw. Where do I need the life-giving breath of God’s Spirit to rejuvenate and restore?
No matter how dry my spiritual energy or quenched love’s flame, the Sovereign Lord can make all things new. He invites my arid heart, my languishing vitality, my barren expectations, my colorless dreams to His life-giving word, that I might believe that He is the Lord. Will I come? What dry bones will I bring? (Revelation 21:5)
Father, impulse by impulse, desire by desire, make me holy and wholly Yours, that all I think, say, and do reflects Your life-giving power and glory.
As the rain and snow 