Editor’s Note: This devotion was written by Dianna Hobbs and used by permission from her ‘Your Daily Cup of Inspiration’ blog. To read more encouragement like this, visit YourDailyCupOfInspiration.com.

I was talking to one of my younger brothers on the phone yesterday. “You sound so good,” he said. “You sound calm, confident—like the Old Dianna.”

That made me smile. I told him how God had been working on me and restoring me.  For quite some time, the going was really rough. I mean, really, really rough. Even through the hard days of recovery, I never stopped believing that I would get to a better place.

And sometimes, God gives me small reminders along the way of how far I’ve come by His grace.

Only someone who knows how far I’d fallen after my mini stroke devastated my life and reduced me to a mere shell of my former self can fully appreciate my progress. In the early days, my situation seemed hopeless. The light had gone out of my eyes. The confidence I once had went away. I was stuck in a valley with seemingly no hope of ever rising again—sort of like the dry bones in Ezekiel 37:1-10.

Last evening, as I was settling in for the night, God told me to read the Bible story about how He led Ezekiel in a vision into a valley of dry bones. The skeletons that were scattered there represented Israel’s desolate state.

They had strayed away from God and were facing harsh divine judgement. But God promised to restore them spiritually and naturally—something that seemed impossible given the hopeless nature of the situation.

Despite the way it looked, Ezekiel obeyed God’s command to prophesy to those skeleton fragments. He spoke a word to a dead nation. Then God caused something amazing to happen.

The bones reconnected and became complete skeletons. Muscles and flesh formed over the bones. But they still had no breath in their bodies. Then God told the prophet to prophesy to the four winds and tell them to breathe new life into the bodies laid out in the valley.

At once, the winds obeyed. The bodies came to life and stood up as a great army!

Man, I love this story.

It reminds you and me that God has power to breathe new life into a lifeless situation and bring together what is scattered, broken, and hopeless in your life. Though this word was specifically geared toward Israel, it can be applied to your situation and give you hope.

Hope that God will visit your valley and breathe new life into you. Hope that He will turn your mourning into joy. Hope that He will restore what you have lost and shift things in your favor. Hope that He will give you a double portion of blessings in the land of your affliction.

Hope is essential because Hebrews 11:1 NIV explains, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Never stop hoping in God. Never stop expecting Him to visit your valley as He has visited mine. Never stop anticipating the day when He will perform His word and fulfill every promise He has made.

I believe He sent me today to tell you that He is getting ready to put the scattered, broken pieces of your life back together again.

Oh yes.

He is commanding the winds of favor to blow in your direction and breathe new life into your circumstances. He is calling you out of that dead place and commanding you to arise and live!

Right now, God is prophesying over you and has instructed me to speak Ezekiel 37:4 NLT over you, which is what I’m stirring into your cup of inspiration: “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.”

As you drink down the contents of your cup, God is visiting your valley and commanding you to arise and live.

Be confident, my friend, that you will live to see the promises of God come to pass. Let me reiterate, all the good stuff He has in store for you, you will live to see it happen.

Don’t give up. Don’t stop believing. Don’t faint. As Psalm 27:13 KJV says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

Dianna Hobbs is founder of EEW Magazine Online and CEO of Empowering Everyday Women Ministries — a 501c3 nonprofit organization that shares the gospel and provides humanitarian aid to the hurting. She is also the writer of Your Daily Cup of Inspiration and executive producer of the companion podcast. Follow Dianna on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. Sign up for her free ministry newsletter here.