Dried Up Skeleton Bones

Something my pastor always emphasizes is our ability to speak life into any situation. I've been thinking more about how to do that. Why is it so much easier to speak death than to speak life? Complaining is so much easier than actively deciding to encourage those close to me. Perhaps this is because it feels more genuine to talk about the way I'm actually feeling. The trick I'm trying to learn is how to acknowledge it when I feel rundown, but then move past that stage into forgiveness and optimism. It spreads death when I dwell on the bad parts.

In the literal sense, Ezekiel spoke life over dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14). He spoke the Word of the Lord and they actually came back to life! Ok, historically we know that this was a metaphor for the reconciliation of Israel and Judah (read the other half of chapter 37), but the Word is living and we can still learn from it today. When God asked Ezekiel to do something completely insane, (talk to actual human bones that had been lying out the desert for freaking ever?!) he just did it. He acknowledged that God might have something up His sleeve, and he did what he was asked.

Here's another twist though: Can we speak life into our own lives? When I feel dried up and bleached out and useless...can I speak the Word of the Lord and be revived? It is so difficult to do that. But I know I feel worse when I embrace depression and stay in bed. When all I want to do is lie flat in my defeat, it perpetuates the situation to do so. How do I speak life into my own life?