Wednesday, December 23, 2020

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.  Psalm 3:5

Growing up I was told I had “exercise induced asthma.” I don’t know if that is/was really a thing. To me it always sounded like a doctor’s kind way of saying, “you’re out of shape.” What I will say is that when I would run, I found it really hard to breathe.

If you’ve ever had asthma or just had the wind knocked out of you, you know what a panicky feeling it is to not be able to breathe. So when I read today’s verse I can’t help but think about the picture of creation in Genesis where God breathes life into Adam.

Our first breath from God produced life and is a gift from God. That breath (God’s sustaining presence) is precisely what keeps us alive each day. However, the day to day struggle of life, the sin we carry, the forces that work against God, want to choke it out of us.

So, whether you are struggling in your relationship with God right now or things are going well and you can just use a reminder, don’t let it get choked out.

Prayer, Scripture, and your fellow believers are precisely what you need to open up the airways and feel that sustaining breath of God.

“God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!”  —Genesis 2:7 (MSG translation)