Day 235 – Bring these dry bones back to life.

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 36 – 38

Ezekiel 37:3-10 “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 will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”

Have you ever been so worn out and so “done” that you feel like you could give up and no one would even notice? Maybe there’s no life left in you and you’re just withering away.

I’ve felt this many a day. I’ve felt like the beautiful flowers outside that wilt with no water. But as the Lord pours down rain to water the earth and bring beauty from the ashes, He also breathes life into us through His Holy Spirit.

For a season that seems like it’s been too long, I’ve felt like I’m withering away. I’m walking through the motions, but ready to just give in. Yet, God is breathing new life into me. He is putting up boundary lines so my flesh has rest, and strengthening my bones to keep fighting the good fight and keeping the faith.

Maybe you too are feeling that way? Maybe you need the breath of Jesus breathed into your dry bones, you need a fresh wind and fresh fire to strengthen and encourage you to keep fighting, keep walking, keeping the faith. Pray to the Lord for His Spirit to fall upon you and fill you, pray to the Lord for His rest to strengthen your bones. He will fill you, He will guide you, and He will bring your dry bones to life.

Day 234 – What kind of shepherd are you?

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 31 – 35

Ezekiel 34:2-5 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.”

Each of us has a flock we are responsible for. We may not all be pastors, teachers, or parents, but God has still placed people around us that we are to lead to Him. These are people who look to us for guidance. Maybe there’s a group at church, work, the gym, school, on social media, or maybe even your favorite hangout. Somewhere, someone, is looking to see what you do, how you react, what you say, and how you treat others. Your “people” are your sheep, and they are learning from you, repeating your every word, and taking mental notes for later use. Your sheep will follow you to great lengths to be fed by you, believe in you to protect them and provide for them.

So what are you feeding them? How are you caring for them?

I want to love my flock as Christ loves me, lead my flock as Christ leads me, and live as Christ lives in me. So, never give up trying to be a good shepherd, even when you’ve made mistakes. When you lead your flock astray, you can always turn and lead them back to peaceful waters. When you yourself get mixed up and confused at how to be a good shepherd just look to your greatest example, the Good Shepherd, and He will guide you Home.

Day 233– Humble yourself before God humbles you.

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 26 – 30

Ezekiel 28:4-7 “By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself and amassed gold and silver in your treasuries. By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, and because of your wealth your heart has grown proud. “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations; they will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom and pierce your shining splendor.”

I’ve always loved to work hard, always tried to do the very best I could at everything I’ve done. However, I learned long ago, that whatever I do, I need to do what the Lord wants me to and do it for Him. For instance, my writing, I’d not do it if it were up to me, I’d rather not. Ive never been an acclaimed writer, but God uses it. Honestly, I only write so others may know Him and He may be Glorified. I don’t want to be a writer. Then theirs the “work” I do, I promise, that’s not me either. My goal is to bring beauty from whatever Jesus puts in front of me. Any need, any one, and I’m there. This is definitely not for me to feel better or to help me in any way, truthfully, I do this because God speaks to me Every. Single. Time.

Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

This is what Christ requires of us. Nothing more, nothing less, just this, Seek Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with God. But if we claim the work we’ve done for ourselves, that we’ve accomplished it, then God will step in and accomplish it for us! And that my friends is not fun. So humble yourself before God humbles you. Seek Him first, see what it is He wants from you, and then work with all your might to glorify Him.

Day 232 – Are we spinning out of control?

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 23 – 25

Ezekiel 25:6-7 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land of Israel, therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will wipe you out from among the nations and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Have you ever looked around and just thought, this place is spinning out of control? The majority of the world goes around doing as they please, using foul language, killing the innocent, living double lives, hurting children, ruining marriages, and these are on the lighter side. It’s as though we have no fear of who God is and what He can do. And yet with all of this we still can’t understand why the world is falling apart and why certain decisions are being made. These are the consequences of the choices we’ve made over a period of time.

Yet we can turn. We can change. Jesus can break the chains of the slavery we find ourselves in. The slavery we have to the choices we’ve made and the consequences we live in. He has set us free, and when we live in Him, in His ways, we live in Freedom.

The world may feel like it’s spinning out of control, but God has full control of the world. The world may be living in sin, but through the blood of Christ all our sins can be cleansed. The world is spinning, but it’s spinning in the hands of our God and He has set us on solid ground.

Day 231 – Who will stand in the gap?

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 20 – 22

Ezekiel 22:30 “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.”

I can’t decide if it was a dream or if it actually happened, but either way I have a deathly fear of drawbridges. My shady memory recalls my Papa, who has been in Heaven since I was a young girl, telling me a story about a time he was on a bridge and it began to open as he was driving over it. Papa said he floored the gas and jumped the GAP and made it safely to the other side. My mom tells me I must have been dreaming because it never happened. But my mind thinks it was real enough for me to always be afraid of a bridge opening while I cross.

All I can think is, what if the Gap is too big and I can’t jump it, what if I drop from the top of the bridge to the bottom of the ocean? Yes, these and many more scenarios cross my mind.

Like this Gap, there is also another Gap that has the potential to bring an even greater fear, but thankfully someone stood in this Gap for me and made a bridge that can never be opened or taken away. This Gap is the gap between Heaven and Hell. We all find ourself in this Gap because of the Fall. Yet, some of us stand on the firm bridge of Jesus Christ and others are on the verge of falling away. God looks down from His throne and sees all the wrong of this world. From His stand point, He has all the reason to destroy this entire land, but instead He sent His Son to walk the Earth and stand in the Gap for us to walk across.

We no longer need to fear the gap because God closed the gap with Jesus life, death, and resurrection. However, we have a great opportunity to stand up beside Jesus and tell others of the security and life we have in Him. We can stand in the gap for those that are Lost, hoping that their feet too will be firmly planted in Christ.

Day 230 – At some point you’ve just got to stop the cycle.

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 7 – 9

Ezekiel 18:20 “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.”

As a mom and a wife, there are many cycles that I’d like to end, but instead I’m put in charge of actually completing them. The dishes keep piling up, and I think the laundry grows on its own. However, if you want clean clothes in this home, I’ve got to get them done.

So as I was thinking about all the cycles I run throughout in a week I began to think about our children and the cycles that they continue in. I’m not talking about traits they were born with that’s part of your DNA or something they do to help out around the house, I’m talking about habits or learned traits that we, their parents, passed down to them and was passed down to us from the generations before us. I wish I could say these are all good traits, but let’s just say, we don’t have enough time or space to dive into my dirty laundry.

But you know what? All learned habits can be broken and if they are broken the only one to get discipline for them are the ones still doing them. God won’t punish us for the sins of our past after we’ve been saved, but he will punish us if we are continuing down the wrong path with sin surrounding us. So let’s break them! Let’s rips off the chains that bind us to the cycles of previous generations.

Day 229 – Doing whatever we Want whenever we Want WON’T satisfy our every Want!

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 14 – 16

Ezekiel 16:28-29 “You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.”

If money wasn’t an issue and you could have everything you thought you ever wanted, but didn’t have Jesus, did you know you still wouldn’t be satisfied? You see, The only thing that satisfies our soul is Jesus. The heart that keeps seeking satisfaction is the heart that has a hole the size of Jesus in it. We can try and place lots of different things in it, all different shapes and sizes, but one by one they will each fall out.

We may all of a sudden think, this one fits just right, this job is exactly what I needed, this raise will provide my every want, this baby will bring my marriage together, this man will be the one that completes me, this move will give me a better life, but then there’s a tiny gap and something else needs to fill it before this peg falls out too. However, once we find the ONE thing, the ONLY thing, the thing that will fit everyONES hole just the same and makes them all feel Whole for the first time, they will have found Jesus. And what’s better yet, Jesus can never fall out, He will stay forever. Isn’t that what you’re wanting? Isn’t that what you are seeking? The ability to feel complete, comfortable, and perfectly content?!

What you need is Jesus. That’s it! That’s all! Do you know how to get Him to fill your heart? Just ask Him! Just pray to His Father in Heaven to give you Jesus. Then your desires will line up with His since He lives directly in that perfect, Jesus size home in your heart.

Day 228 – Dear Lord, Please remove the heart of stone.

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 11 – 13

Ezekiel 11:19-20 “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

How many people do you know that walk around everyday with a heart of stone? They may be bitter, downcast, angry, frustrated, constantly envious….and my soul aches for this person. I don’t believe they want to be this way, but they know no other way.

They weren’t born with a heart of stone, it could have as easily been you or me, but for some reason God chose to spare us. He had grace upon us to keep us close to Him. Instead of being harmed and hurt we were healed and filled with hope.

Maybe you’ve had a hardened heart, but God has recently given you a new one, or you realize your heart is hardened but you don’t know how to heal it. The heart that’s been hardened has happened over time. Maybe it started with callouses of childhood hurts, an ugly divorce, an abusive relative, drugs, etc., and then as you began to age you settled into the view that God did this to you or allowed this to happen to you. So, you turned further and further away from Him and harder and harder your heart became.

The good news, however, is that no matter how hard your heart, God can still reach in there, even as late as death, and give you a new heart. This new heart will heal the entirety of your soul and prepare you to worship God forever. How great it is to know that God cares that much. So Pray with Faith for those around you that may have a hardened heart, that it may be exchanged for a heart of flesh filled with love. Not only pray, but also Share Christ’s love with them, so that they may know what this heart will be like. It’s a new heart and a new start, and straight from the love of Christ.

Day 227 – Do you bear the mark?

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 7 – 10

Ezekiel 9:3-6 “Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple.”

God spoke to this man clothed in linen and told him to go through the “Holy City” and place a mark on the heads of those who were obedient to him. This mark would bring salvation to these that had it. The last time God had used a mark was in Egypt when He asked the People to place the blood of the lamb on their doors so the spirit of death would pass over them. 2000 years ago, God once again used a mark to save His people, this time it would be the blood of a “Man” that was pure and Holy. For it is Jesus’ blood flowing through us that marks our life once we choose to believe in Him as Lord and Savior. It may look different from the others but believers will be known by it.

Every once in a while, I also think God still places physical marks on some to remind us of his love for us. Jesus had marks on his hands from where the nails pierced Him, Hayden had a mark on His forehead, where I told him the angel kissed Him. This mark was a gift to me that said, I am with you, I will never leave you. Just like Jesus’ mark is felt in our heart, a mark that declares we are His and our allegiance is to Him, Our God. Only a few may have a physical mark, but we all have the opportunity to choose the Eternal Mark.

Choose Jesus, be marked, and be saved!

Day 226 – Food for the Soul.

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 2 – 6

Ezekiel 3:1-3 “And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.”

My family is 100 percent a bunch of foodies. Our schedules, birthdays, and holidays all revolve around what, where, and when we’re going to eat. Even deciding on a vacation depends on the places they have to eat. This morning my daughter woke me up asking if I’d like French toast for breakfast. When dinner comes right when I get back from the grocery store, I know someone will ask where we’re going to eat tonight. And as I’m tucking into bed this evening, I know I’ll already be thinking of yogurt and porridge in the morning.

We live and breath food, and due to this issue we have to watch our focus on foods importance over the Word of God. Honestly, the Word of the Lord should fill us before anything else. It should be what gets us going in the morning: mind, body, and soul.

Whenever I wake, even if I’m running extremely behind or up early to run, God’s Word has to come before feeding my belly. God’s got to always be first in my life and I want Him to know it. He is able to fill me more than any food ever will. His Word is the best food for my soul, it enriches my mind, it’s sweeter than Honey, and moves me to action. We should eat of it every day, knowing it will sustain us and grow us into exactly who Christ wants us to be.