Ezekiel 37:11
....."We have become old, dry bones----all hope is gone."
What an incredible visual that depicts life in addiction....Let me rephrase that....
What an incredible visual that depicts existence. There isn't any life to be found in the downward slide into the darkness of addiction.
Addiction does not take into account the reason a person starts to use.
Addiction does not differentiate between ethnic groups....educated or uneducated...college graduate or high school drop out. After all, addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer.
Little by little, bit by bit, life is traded away for a feeling...
Future's are exchanged for a moment that eventually piles up to become a destructive past that will only define any future you may have.
I love the story found in Ezekiel 37. God takes Ezekiel out into a valley that is filled with dry, dead bones. No life at all...not ever marrow is found in these bones. They have laid out under the baking sun that sucked every bit of life from them. Having no life only breeds the idea of having no hope. When hope is gone there's not much more to live for.
Same with addiction. When you reach a certain point in this downward journey, hope is lost and there is a resolve that you have crossed the point of believing that you can be saved. You begin to wander day to day under the direct false belief that "I am what I am...I am hopeless...I cannot change." With that being the dominant thought, why would you ever believe that it was within your reach to be helped out of this proverbial valley of dry, dead bones. Here in lies the rub, so to speak. We truly have to seek a power greater than ourselves to lift us up and provide "breath" for us to have this new life. We are incapable of doing this ourselves. As I have written so many times before....that Power has a name..........and that name is Jesus.
If you look at verse 10 of Ezekiel 37, you'll see that this exchange of the old life for the new one has a purpose behind it. We read where Ezekiel obeyed God by speaking to this valley full of dry bones. Doing so started a reaction as the Spirit of the Living God came in contact with the Dead bones. Death never wins over the Spirit. Bone found bone....rattling across that wilderness floor. Foot bone moved and found the leg bone it was supposed to be attached to. God took a chaotic mess and brought divine order and purpose to it. Ezekiel writes..."Breath came upon them.....they stood upon their feet." Are you ready for this next part? They became an exceedingly great army.
Interesting choice of words.....great army.
Army has a purpose behind it. War....conflict.
So this valley of dry bones, when rightly touched and assembled by the hand of God had a purpose to its very existence.
Do you not see that when you step back and look at the larger picture of recovery, you'll see a vast army of dead men and women being brought back to life. An army that will go back into the darkness and snatch others from their own "dry bone" existence. We are an army that has been touched by Almighty God...filled with gratitude for what has been freely given to us by Him. Such gratitude not only fuels us to move forward in our personal life, but also reach out to others along the way. Seek God today....ask Him, "What would you have me do? He'll show you. You can bet on that.
God on you...
mbb
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