Adventure Day 44 - 4/6-09

[Read Ezekiel 37:1-28] Today's devotional reading from the 50 Day Adventure is an Old Testament classic: "...the knee bone's connected to the, thigh bone..." (you probably remember the song, right?). Ezekiel the prophet is given this remarkable vision of a valley of dry bones that are brought back together and enlivened by God's Word. By vision's end, the bones once strewn around the whole valley have become a vast living "revived" army. Then the Lord tells the prophet, "...these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off '." Yet God has a different plan.

There are times for all of us when our experience of life "is dried up and our hope is gone." God can use these disappointments to manifest himself in powerful ways, doing beyond what we expect, going beyond when our strength has expired. Consider these lyrics, among my personal favorites, by Annie J. Flint (He Giveth More Grace):

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Today, ask the Lord to surprise you with renewal/revival, whatever your state of "dryness." Let's ask him use us in bringing renewal/awakening to our church. Did you notice the wonderful question the Lord asks Ezekiel at the beginning of today's Bible reading? (v.3) "Son of man, can these old dry bones live?" He still asks that question, and of course, he knows the answer... he's just wondering if we have faith enough to join him in the joyful hope that he is soon up to something. God is able "to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20).

Praying with Hope,
Pastor Paul