30 Thoughts prompted by Bones

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Thought 25

Ezekiel 37:11

Then He said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’

In the Psalms we often see David, the individual feeling hopeless. Here it is a whole nation. But it was not God’s intention to leave them in their hopelessness. He saw their misery, and wanted to revitalise the sad discouraged community of Israel. There are many groups, churches, communities and nations today who need to know that the Lord can make dead bones live.

Praise the Lord that He sees the end of the story, and not just today’s news. Praise God that He can bring forth or revitalise a nation in a day. (Isaiah 66:8)

Pray for those people groups who feel or look, cut off from the Saviour. Pray for encouragement and for the resurrection power to be available for them today. Pray for the nations where there is strife, war, famine.

Thought 26

John 19:36

These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”

There are many prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament, and 4 times in the New Testament we have the expression, “so that the scripture would be fulfilled“. It really is important that we understand that “All scripture is inspired by God….” (2 Timothy 3:16) and it is all part of the Same Story. One continuing story which began even before creation, and is unfolding daily, supervised by our Heavenly Father. Nothing is by chance, and all things hold together in Him.

Pray for the Lord to give you a new revelation of His perfect unfolding plan.

Praise Him according to Colossians 1:16. (All things were made by Him… and for Him.)

Thought 27

Micah 3:2-3

You who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot.

Some of the messages of the so called minor prophets can be quite gruesome! You would guess here that God is talking to the enemies of His people, but no! The first verse of this chapter addresses the “heads of Jacob” and “rulers of the house of Israel”. Being a leader is always a big responsibility, and being a good leader can be difficult, but being a deliberately bad leader provokes the wrath of the Lord. The Bible has much to say about bad shepherds who do not care for God’s flock. (See the verse in the next thought.)

Pray today for mercy for those who lead in His name. Pray for church leaders and government leaders to hear the voice of the One Perfect Leader, The One Perfect Authority. Pray for pastors and priests to have the Lord’s heart for the people for whom they are responsible.

Praise God that Jesus was the perfect shepherd and is raising up good shepherds for His flock today.