Don't Hold Your Breath

Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life....Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord God, COME FROM THE FOUR WINDS, O BREATH, AND BREATHE ON THESE SLAIN, THAT THEY MAY COME TO LIFE'."   So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.--Ezekiel 37:5, 9-10

I may have mentioned this in one of my prior posts, but I have been exercising.  Today marks 90 days of consistent daily exercise.  Every morning, I pull up the web page of my virtual trainer (shout out to Heart And Soul Fitness; find them at HASFIT.com).  Even though Coach Kozak is in a room by himself with a camera, he speaks to the camera as if it were a room full of sweaty people struggling through the exercise routine.

It always makes me smile whenever he gets to the last minute or so of the routine.  He starts shouting things like, "Don't give up!  Sprint to the end!  That's it!!"  Very encouraging.  He also has some encouraging habits toward the beginning of his workouts.  No matter which routine I choose, whether the 25 minute HIIT routine I do on the weekends, or the 15 minute beginner weight training routine I like best, or even the series of three 10-minute fat burning routines, he will say the same thing.

"Don't forget to breathe," he will warn.  "It will be a long 15 minutes if you forget to breathe."

At church the last 3 weekends, our pastor has been preaching a series on the essentials of the faith.  The first week it was "He is the BREAD OF LIFE."  He pointed out that a person can only live between 40 and 60 days without food.  How then, he asks, can we go so long without communing with Jesus?  The next week it was, "He is the WATER OF LIFE."  He estimated that a person could live only 5-10 days without water.  How then, he wondered, can we go that long without coming to the Fountain of Life?  The last sermon in the series was, "He is the BREATH OF LIFE."  How long can we go without air?  Even the best underwater swimmers can only go 4-5 minutes.  How then can we go all day without prayer?

A long 15 minutes, indeed.

For me, the Bread is the Word of God.  The more I feast on God's Word, the hungrier I am for Him.  I really do feel spiritually emaciated if I go a week without reading it.  The best way to hear from God is by reading the Bible.  The better analogy for water, at least for me, is uplifting Christian music.  It flows in and through me, it washed out the crusty build-up in my mind, and it satisfies my thirst for God.  And then, finally, the best analogy for air is prayer.  God's Spirit moves through prayer.  We can pray while doing practically anything else.

Recently my daily Bible reading, at least the Old Testament part, has taken me to Isaiah.  I heard a speaker once say that he reads four chapters in the Bible each day.  One chapter from Psalms, because it is like hearing from God each day.  One chapter from Proverbs, because it is like hearing the wisdom of the Holy Spirit each day.  And one chapter from the New Testament, because he wanted to also hear from Jesus each day.  He didn't really say what the fourth chapter was, so I started at Genesis 1 and am working through the rest of the Old Testament.

Anyway, this week I have been in Isaiah.  As most of you know, Isaiah is a book of prophecy.  A lot of the prophecy in Isaiah, by the way, is Messianic in nature.  It is the gospel that Jesus preached; much of it foretells about the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.  But did you know that in the middle of the prophetic book of Isaiah, there is a psalm?

I will give thanks to You, O Lord; for although you were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.  Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.  Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.  And in that day you will say, "Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name.  Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted."  Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things; Let this be known throughout the earth.  Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.  --Isaiah 12:1-6

Isn't that great?  That, my friend, is a sumptuous meal right there.  If you want a song to help wash it down (like water--see what I did there?), I know a song that was based on verse 2.  Here is a link to it, if you would like to hear and meditate on it:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1UFzi4JCqA
If you can't find the link, look up the Christian singing group Harvest, and find the song "Behold God."  Smooth and refreshing.

Now breathe a little prayer of thanks to God for His grace and mercy, because he sacrificed a great deal to save you from everlasting torment.  CS Lewis said, "It cost God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion."

Just like there is a psalm in the middle of Isaiah's prophecies, there is a prophecy in the middle of the book of Psalms.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning....All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, "Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him"....For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet....They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots....They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it.  --Psalm 22: 1, 7-8, 16, 18, 31

King David lived a millennium before Jesus was born, but even then God used him to foretell about the agonizing death Jesus would suffer on the cross.  As we approach Good Friday leading up to Easter Sunday, let us think about the One who suffered our shame and our guilt on the cross, where (like David foretold) God Himself turned away and forsook Him; when the Pharisees mocked Him, saying "He saved others, let Him save Himself"; they nailed His hands and feet to the tree, piercing them forever; they stripped Him naked and cast lots for His garment.  Yet fully two millennia later, we still tell of His righteousness.

The same God who breathed life into Adam raised Jesus to life again after He was dead and buried.  We must every day until our dying breath praise Him, worship Him, honor and obey Him.  Without His breath in our lungs, without water on our lips, without food for our sustenance, we are like the dry bones Ezekiel prophesied over in Ezekiel 37.  God can revive us.  He can prophesy over us.  He can summon the four winds from every direction to stir us up to life and godliness.  Once revived, then, how can we not crave a steady diet of Him?  How can we not exercise in His power for His glory?