Do you feel hopeless? Have you been walking though a time of deperation? For you it could be due to finances, relationships, health, etc.

In our lives, we all have experiences that sometimes leave us feeling like the situations feel so BIG, or so BAD or so Deep, that we can hardly "Breathe" and we feel like we won't even survive.

Inspired by the a Scripture, Ezekial 37: 1 - 10, this painting depicts that desparation and deep sadness, but it also speaks of hope. You will notice the skeleton bones layered in the lower portion of the painting, but little pieces of plants, leaves and flowers a starting to push their way through as you move up the painting. The words of the scripture are embedded into the background, and key words or phrases that spoke life to me through this passage are brought forth amid the background.

If you are currently walking in a "Valley of Dry Bones", I hope you find encouragement, as I did, through this very powerful scripture. (I have taken the liberty to accentuate those words that gave me Hope and Life)

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, “Insert Your Name, can these bones become living 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 Lordsays: 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 to the winds, 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, “Insert your name, these bones represent you." They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. But this is what the Sovereign Lord says: O Insert your name, I will open your graves cause you to rise again.

Note: Definition of "Sovereign": One who possesses supreme or ultimate power, unrestricted, boundless, unlimited

Now knowiing this, reread the passage of what Sovereign means and inserting your name in the appropriate places. May this BREATHE Hope and Life back into you.