Hope Revived

 

Proverbs 13:12 tells us that "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

This song is for those who feel flattened, either by circumstances you put yourself in, or circumstances that just hit out of nowhere and feel like they have sucked out all your hope. It is for that valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37) where you ask, "Can anything good even come out of this at this point? It died, got buried, was dug up, the buzzards picked it clean, the sun baked it, and now it is dust. It is OVER." Kind of like Mary and Martha saying, "Jesus, if you had just come as soon as we asked you to help, Lazarus would still be alive! Why did you wait so long??? He has been in the tomb 4 days and has most likely already started to rot!" (John 11)

Good thing we serve a God who makes the impossible, possible and resurrects dead things. When all your friends write you off as crazy and leave you for dead, when the phone does not ring and you feel too much time has passed for it to matter anymore, God can show He is the One doing it and bring it back to life in a way we did not expect.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.  And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.  I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.  Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ”So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”

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