“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4
“It’s your breath in our lungs...”* We frequently sing those words in Sunday worship but they carry far greater impact since my husband’s recent illness. His body was almost instantly weakened when a deadly bacterial attack resulted in organ damage. For two months, every minute of day and night, auxiliary oxygen continuously pumped into his lungs until they gradually strengthened sufficiently to work on their own.
When God created the first human, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” And so it is for every follower of Jesus to this day. Without God’s very breath of life—his Holy Spirit—continually infusing life-giving power, we soon grow spiritually weak, even find ourselves fainting from the exhaustion of going it alone.
We are constantly bombarded by the “bacteria” of the world—doubt, selfishness, anger, anxiety—all causing us to stumble with weakness instead of firmly walking with confidence through life. In the Bible is written, “be continually filled with the Holy Spirit,“ constantly breathe in his life-sustaining power by walking intimately with him. Just as oxygen was pumped from a source, God’s breath is the source infusing us as we submit to his leading, spend time in reading and reflecting on his words from the Bible, and listening to his whispers in prayer. Strong spiritual lungs are as crucial as those residing in our bodies.
By Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• How to be filled with the Holy Spirit
• Spiritual Oxygen: Are You Getting Enough?