Thích Nhat Hanh
hold our breath. We don’t inherently
trust God, so we attempt to labor things
out ourselves. Even after we ask the
Holy Spirit to dwell in us, there will arise
occasions when we are quenching Him
in some way; maybe trying to ignore a
prompting, or not taking a path He calls
us to because of fears, etc. Or maybe
we are “holding our breath”, afraid to
trust the Lord with some aspect of our life
and we end up panting in exhaustion. In
this too we must learn to let go and fully
engage, to exhale our praise and inhale
relief, oxygen, fresh hope.
“Let everything that hath breath praise
the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.” Psalm 150:6
Asthma is when, “the bronchioles constrict,
reducing the size of the airways. This cuts
down on the flow of air and makes the
respiratory muscles work harder.”1
Sin constricts our ability to breath in Life,
making us less sensitive to the promptings
of the Holy Spirit as we seek to justify
ourselves. Life becomes harder to bear,
harder to handle, it gets harder to breath,
and the Holy Spirit is hindered from being
able to sustain us.
Apnea is when breathing slows, or
stops altogether; and for us spiritually, it
means we have become apathetic or
acclimated to sin. We are no longer in
tune to the Holy Spirit, and so we stop
breathing, and fall asleep. Some never
waking up again.
1 http://www.montana.edu/craigs/How%20Your%20
Lungs%20Work.htm
Through conscious and deliberate
‘breathing’ we will soon find that abiding
in the Vine becomes second nature;
indeed it is, as we have become a new
creation, a brand new man engrafted
with the nature of Christ. There will
certainly arise those trials and road bumps
that can throw off our equilibrium, yet just
as “coughing and sneezing cause air to
be rapidly and violently exhaled from the
lungs and airways, removing the offending
substance”, so we must be diligent in
endeavoring to rapidly and, sometimes
violently, remove the offending aspects
of our life. The besetting sins, sweep under
the rug habits, and loss of eternal focus
that keep us from fully entering into the
rush of the Holy Spirit.
“For in him we live, and move, and have
our being…” Acts 17:28
The wind is shaking the trees outside
my window. In fact it stirs everything it
touches; and I want to be like the wind.
To leave nothing untouched, to make a
difference for the Kingdom everywhere
I go, and in everything I do. The people
we pass on the street may not know us
personally, but may they leave with no
doubt that Something unseen is moving
us, and them. We can’t do this without
Jesus filling all our empty cavities and
echoing out again in praise!
“The spirit of God hath made me, and
the breath of the Almighty hath given
me life.” Job 33:4
Relax. And just Breathe. |
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