Breathe
breathe in. breathe out.
It’s so natural we forget about it, yet such a wonder that we can’t. God is so attentive to us that he breathes life into our lungs continually, over and over, moment after moment each day.
What love.
23,040 — the average number of breaths you are given each day. Over 670,00,000 in a lifetime. Talk about a giving Father. Among the many other gifts he gives us each day, we receive these.
What generosity.
How is it that we can take in air — this invisible substance — into our lungs to fill and expand them? To bring in what our body needs to live. Our lungs do not even want to be expanded, though it’s what gives our body life. The pressure of our chest would rather have our lungs stay deflated, it naturally pushes the air out. Yet, they so desperately need this invisible substance.
What wonder.
What if we had to be responsible for making sure we somehow took in air at the right time every second, every day. Just the action of breathing is a miraculous thing, tracking little messages continually from our brain to the muscles needed to summon air in… and out …. in …. and out…Invisible yet vital.
Spiritus, pneuma, breath — the word “spirit” emerges from the word “breath”. We depend on our breath for life. Likewise, we depend on God’s Spirit for life. Exhaling and inhaling moment by moment to depend upon Him. Exhaling that which would otherwise kill our spirit with strangling anxiety, heart-stopping fear, burning anger, numbing bitterness, hounding guilt, suffocating failures …It takes just minutes to suffocate.
“Save us Abba, Father. Revive us with the Breath of Life!”
He is listening and waiting. His mighty hand is there to save, there to revive, there to be our Breath of Life. Day by day, moment by moment. We depend on Him as we depend on breathing.From the moment we are born to the moment we cease to live God celebrates our life with giving us each breath.
“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty give me life.” Job 33:4
He never wearies from reviving us with his Spirit, he never ceases to celebrate our life with each breath he gives us. It’s a wonder of his creation.
“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
Take a deep breath.
“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”Genesis 2:7
