10 In His hand is the life of every creature, and the breath of every human being. – Job 12:10
When I used to play sports (mainly High School and Jr. College soccer), I would sometimes have a problem with getting dizzy or light headed. A coach made an observation that when I was focusing intently on handling the ball or trying to defend the ball, I had a bad habit of holding my breath, not breathing through the physical exertion. He would constantly remind me to “breathe!” I still have problem with that sometimes. But speaking of breathing, did you know our breathing is different when we are awake than when we are sleeping? When we are awake,
our breathing patterns are pretty erratic, most of the time because of everything that is going on. Things like speech, exercise, posture, emotions and a whole bunch of other things all cause our breathing to be irregular. When we are falling asleep, at least through the first three stages, our breathing rate decreases and becomes fairly regular. If we move through the first three stages and hit REM sleep, our breathing becomes irregular again, due in part to the rapid eye movements and the vividness of our dreams.
Every night, every day, every breathe, of every person ever born, is under the control of God’s hand! WOW! Every single breath, whether waking or sleeping, every word you say, no matter what exercise you may do, no matter how straight you walk or how you lounge, no matter what stage of sleep you are in or the very first breath you are aware of in the morning….. God has His hand in every single breath that you take! Think about that! And… be humbled and thankful!
What if we started every day acknowledging this fact? Think it might make a difference in our day? Try holding your breath right now…hold it… hold it… getting uncomfortable? … now let it out and take a big breath – ah… Thank God for that incredible gift!!
Forever in HIS Grace,
Pastor Ben
