Recently my daily Bible study was in Ezekiel 37:1-10, “The hand of  the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry.  And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?  And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.  Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these drybones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.  Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:  and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD…So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

Ezekiel was looking at a valley full of dry bones.  As he walked around and among them, he saw that they were “very dry”–dry on every side.  These sun-baked bones had been there for a while. God asked him “can these bones live?” I know in our profession, we can feel like dead dry bones, with no life left. There have been times when I  felt so dead and dry that I questioned,not really knowing if I could live again.

As the sun bears down in the open valley of the corrections environment, we are left exposed.  With no vegetation(no volunteer on our behalf) to give even a hint of moisture, each tour of duty dries a little more, and we find ourselves dry in the workplace, dry in our family life–dry in every way-dry on every side. Whatever moisture of relief we found at night is soon driven off during the day.  Corrections work has a way of pulling the life right out, drying even the most spiritually saturated Christian. The sights, sounds, and smells can dull every one of our senses, as though we were dead.  Yet, I can surely testify, God has all the power necessary to make us fully live.  None of us are too far gone or been dead too long.  Our dry dead bones can be brought to life on a daily basis by Jesus Christ.

According to Romans 13, God has ordained our job. He desires for us to be very much alive and by His power and grace, we can be. As we read through this passage in Ezekiel, we see that God mentions to prophesy (preach) to the dry bones, not just once but until they become alive.  Constant connection with the Word of God is necessary to live. Therefore, abiding in His Word is mandatory.  Our attachment to His Word must be maintained through daily reading, through prayer, and through our local church.  Although death blows are dealt to us as corrections officers, God, the Giver of Life, gives life to all. God can give us breath, and we can stand on our feet an exceeding great army…not just living, but effective…fit for anything that comes at us or opposes us–standing on our feet as a mighty army for Him.