Dry Bones

There are days and weeks and months where I feel like the life has been sucked right out of me

It could be due to being busy all of the time. Attempting to pour out into others could be a reason as well. Working jobs that I know I do not want to spend the rest of my life doing could factor into that also. All the things that I do seem legit and selfless but honestly I can hear the Lord saying to me through scripture, 

They may see you doing all these things but, you and I know where we stand.

I was once so on fire for Jesus that I did almost all I could do in my power to make Him known. Despite all my "Christian-ese" training and volunteering and works for Jesus it's hard for me to say that my love for Him got lost in the works (the thing that didn't saved me in the first place).

"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind."

Isaiah 64:6

So somewhere in between of falling in love with Jesus and doing so much for Him, I lost the love that I once had for Him. I began reading less that I used to. I stopped praying like I used to. I didn't evangelize like I used to. I didn't even laugh like I used to. Who am I kidding, I'm still trying to get out of this "slump." Obviously nothing has changed on God's part. He is everything He was from the book of Genesis to now and He will forever always be the same. It's my heart that's deceitful. My heart was dry.

How could I, in the midst of all of my Christian deeds, forget about the one who saved me? Jesus sends this message to the church in Sardis:

“I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.

Revelation 3:1b-2

So if my deeds are filthy rags in God's sight and those actions do not meet the requirements of God, then what in the world meets those requirements? I'm (and I'm sure a lot of Christians) meet this criteria. Having a reputation of being alive...yet God really knows whats up with us. People see us serving, but only the Big Man knows where we are with Him. God knows where I'm at with Him.

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

So, that's it. 

My salvation is based on a relationship. My love for the Lord and Him only. NOT my reputation. NOT my Christian resume. Not even by how many I lead to the Lord. Solely on my relationship with His son Jesus Christ. What I do with Him determines where I go. I believe the requirement Jesus talked about in Revelation was simply this: to fall in love with Him and for it to stay that way. (see Revelation 2:1-5)

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A lot of Christians struggle with this, especially in college. We learn about Jesus and accept His love and give our lives away without truly remembering what we gave our lives away for in the first place. From seeing what Jesus has to say about it and from experience I can truly say that it is not life giving at all. And we feel it however, most of us don't express it. The same God who gave us life no longer gives us the fuel to run on because our roots are not in Him. We don't look for our "daily bread" from chewing on the Word of God and we become dry because we are not truly seeking the true Living Water. We have become dry bones: robots without a brain just doing things because they are good, not truly seeking the Lord behind closed doors. It's like Siri: Steve Jobs is dead and it's still up and running without it's own mind, only doing what it's programmed to do and nothing more. But our God is alive and we were meant to live for so much more than a life of a robot. 

Take a second to read Ezekiel 37:1-14 (below in NLT):

A Valley of Dry Bones

The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”

Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”

So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”

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This passage is pointing to Jesus. When all hope was gone for sinners alike God demonstrated His love for us in this mighty way: sending Jesus off of His throne to die for us so we may live! We were the walking dead and God's Spirit has made us alive again! We were dry bones but now we are alive and well! Praise God!

But as we see in Revelation 3:2, Jesus tells us to strengthen what little remains. 

Because my bones long for perfect love. They desire Him. They cry out for Him! And He knows that He is the only thing that can bring life to the dead. A healthy growing relationship with Him is the antidote to that hole in our heart that we try to plug in with everything else other than Him. I've tried to plug it up with money, thinking it would solve my problem. Serving, thinking I could buy the plug. And people, hoping that they don't see that I'm truly messed up.

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But, I am messed up regardless. The point is that my identity is not in what I do, but what Jesus has done. And what I do does not determine who I am but, who I am in Christ determines what I do! Something has to change with my relationship with the man who endured the cross so I could be set free. I have to respond to that. And He asks us this: to love Him.

I am imperfect and I will be until I see my Savior, but I want to return to that dumb kid who spent His whole freshman and sophomore year chasing Jesus and fishing men. I believe God wants all of us to return to loving Him completely, not partially.

These bones are crying out, and I didn't realize it at first but thank God I see it now. They long for the same One that revived them: Jesus. Without Him, I am just a bag of old dry bones.

We need Him. Let's start living like it.