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One of my favorite things about summer is the ability to be outside without being cold. As silly as that sounds, I am the Queen of icicle hands and feet at any and every season.
Pressing my feet into the hot concrete beneath my porch, I snuggled up to my Bible. It was the sunshine cascading out of the sky onto my face with the newness of today’s glory. Pressing the Word upon my heart, I breathed in the cool air as I began to pray.
Lacing my fingers together and lifting them towards the sky, the slight arch in my back created a change in posture. Almost losing my balance, I noticed the spinning rainbow pinwheel had created a reflection on my back that made me jump. I could not see the wind moving it, but I knew and trusted that that was how it was running.
In life, I think we often forget to give God credit where credit is due. As a scuba diver faithfully depends on its oxygen tank to hold enough air for the great dive, we put more trust in the air we can’t see but breathe than a God who gives us that air in the first place!
Have you ever tried to think about breathing only to realize that when you do, you’ve suddenly forgotten how? We do the same thing when trusting God, who we say we believe in but cannot physically see with our eyes. If only we would realize God is the air we breathe and the oxygen we exhale.
In his sermon How Great Is Our God, Loui Giglio once said that we hear the sound Yahweh in response as we inhale life. Though we cannot physically see the breath, it’s an essential part of daily living. Our bodies are not only made of the breath of God but represent the crucifix of the cross.
Genesis 2:7 in the ESV tells us this: “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7, ESV).
This breath not only comes from life itself but gives us the most whole measure and experience of it that we can experience here on earth until we get to Heaven. And not only this, but when we read or listen to The Word of God, we are drinking deeply the breath of God that gives us this encounter.
Even after losing everything and everyone he cared about, Job taught and demonstrated this principle well:
“As God lives, who has taken away my right and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit” (Job 27:2-4, ESV).
From within his sorrow, Job recognized the breath in his lungs and the wind in his hair. He surrendered to what was unseen, replacing what was with what wasn’t. This measure and posture of faith not only said, this is the air I breathe, but God is the only breath I need.
“Who put [God] in charge over the earth? Or who laid on Him the whole world? If [God] should set His heart upon him [man] and withdraw His [life-giving] spirit and His breath [from man] to Himself, All flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust” (Job 34:13-15, AMPC).
Job’s ability to see the unseen even when it felt like both were going to be taken at any moment’s notice reveals to us what Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18.
“We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18, TPT).
Just because we can’t see the wind or oxygen with our eyes doesn’t mean it isn’t there. In fact, both entities aren’t merely essential; they are what we need most in life–something necessary and refreshing to the soul.
Because sometimes, there are days like these where I feel the wind, and I see it moving through the colorful engine of a spinning pinwheel. I experience God and know He is near, almost like I can feel Him in my bones. But others, I wonder when the cool breeze will ever come. I scorch in the sun, waiting on a refreshing drink from Him, but I trust that as every temperature rises, the air of His satisfying wind will blow upon me again.
On average, we take 20,000+ breaths a day. Of these inhales and exhales, I wonder how many we think about or how many we trust our lungs to keep producing. Today, I encourage you to listen to your breathing and where you place your eternal hope and satisfaction. Consider if God is the wind and oxygen you depend on or forget He is there entirely.
Even in the heat of a Sahara Desert, God is waiting on you to depend on Him. He alone is the air we breathe and the wind that refreshes our souls, and He’s waiting on you to notice Him.
Agape, Amber