What Will Raise Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones?

Dry Bones by Oudsidescape/pixabayEzekiel 37:1-5: 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! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 

I have been in the valley that most educators find themselves in this time of year: the valley of dry bones. I have felt my creativity evaporate, my energy disappear, and my patience, well, let’s not even go there …

However, as I slipped into oblivion in my recliner last evening, I had an Ezekiel experience:

I heard a voice say, “Remember the valley of dry bones? What do dry things need?”

I responded, “They need water.”

And the voice replied, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from the heart of anyone who believes in me.”

Yes!

The Holy Spirit is my water, an artesian well, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” (John 4:14). He gives refreshment, energy, patience, and all the other fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. I need them all. I reckon you do, too. 

The remedy for dry bones? Living water!

I want the water, the fruit, and the overflow. It is the essential resource that makes me an effective disciple, and dare I say it, an effective teacher. Sing it with me:

Like the woman at the well, I was seeking

For things that could not satisfy

And then I heard my Savior speaking

“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.”

Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul

Bread of Heaven, feed me ’til I want no more

Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.

(Songwriters: Richard Blanchard © Word Music, Llc)

God bless you, and may you be filled and refreshed in His living water today.