Month: October 2016

The Holy Spirit has been impressing on me the Father’s restoring love.  Throughout Scripture, in the testimonies of His saints, we see His restoration…His love.

The particular passages that led me to these thoughts were those of Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones.  There are so many lessons to feast upon in Ezekiel 37; however, I think Ezekiel’s tellings of God taking him to the Valley of Dry Bones is so rich.

BEFORE CHRIST (B.C.)

There is such a beautiful picture in this passage of our lives before repentance…when we are dead in our sins.  Without Christ, we are dead…we are dead spiritually…there is no life, no hope, and we are nothing but a Valley of Dry Bones.  BUT GOD, sent His only begotten Son (John 3:16) because He loved us.  He desired in that GREAT LOVE to restore us to Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ.  He pursues us, relentlessly, because He desires a relationship with us.  When we repent of our sins and allow Jesus to be Lord of our life, He restores us…completely…and finally.

IN CHRIST (I.C.)

Restoration doesn’t stop after we accept Christ.  Chuck Swindoll once said, “Life is so daily!”  I love that because it is true!!  Life can sometimes come crashing upon us and shaking us to our very core.  It can be finances, the death of a spouse or a child, a job loss, or, even as we are facing today in Florida, a Hurricane Matthew.

Sometimes these “shakings” can seemingly plant us right back into that Valley of Dry Bones…we might feel that God has forsaken us..but I assure you HE.HAS.NOT.  He said, “I will never leave you; nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)  This is a promise with certainty.

Keep pressing on…God has promised that He will restore you…as He did with the death of His Son…but He also promised it in Ezekiel.  When you feel that you have no usefulness to God or even, as sometimes I can feel, unworthy to be used of God, don’t forget that He has set you a part…He has called you out of that valley.  He is our Restorer.

Sometimes He allows us to walk through valleys to teach us –to make us stronger–we need to be refined.  However, He DID NOT call us back to that valley of dried up bones…HE.DID.NOT.  We are no longer dead…we are ALIVE in Christ Jesus…”O you dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord!  Don’t just hear it only, apply it!  God is not slack concerning His promises.

Fall into the Father’s Restoring Love –let Him breath a fresh wind into your dried up bones!