living and breathing

Saturday, February 11, 2012 (7:18 a.m.)

Living, Breathing Father God,

I’ve been thinking of my breathing for much of the morning. A comment was made the other night about a much-loved couple that lived Your love as though they were just breathing it in and out all their lives.

Blessed Father, thank You that just as I was about to say that I don’t even know what that would look like, You reminded me again that You provided this one particular couple to show us. What I don’t know is what that would BE like! Trust in You and Your Word without having to think about it? On a regular, automatic basis? Yes Father. Sign me up for that kind of devotion to You, Your will and Your way.

Beloved Father God, I search Your Word this morning. Seeking the verses You’d most like me to carry throughout this day. Verses that will remind me that You are absolutely in charge of every aspect of my being. Thank You Father that You love each of us so much.

Of the five results I found in The Message containing the words “living” and “breathing”, it’s Haggai 2:4-5 and Romans 8:5-8 that have my attention right now. There is Truth here I want to grasp.

You spoke words of encouragement to the people of Jerusalem through Haggai. “Get to work… I’m living and breathing among you right now. Don’t be timid. Don’t hold back.” Father, I confess. I don’t know how to live boldly in and through You. Oh, but I desperately want to!

Reading about Paul’s letter to the Romans in its introduction, I find these words after the detailing of the four major points of his letter. “… but it’s really a letter about how to live.” Father God, thank You that You love each of us so very much that You would provide such direction for us.

Paul’s words to the Romans (8:5), by way of Eugene Peterson tell us, “Those who think they can do it [keep the law code] on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them – living and breathing God!”

Mm. Living and breathing God! Your Spirit living in me. Father, I long to live my life as though I believe this to be true.

Paul continued (vs. 6-8) “Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends us thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what He is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.”

Living, Breathing Father God, I want to know You well enough that I would never think of ignoring You! Teach me to pay attention to You. Lead me “out into the open, into spacious, free life.” Mm. Living and breathing God, living in me. Yes Lord, as I live and breathe, let me live and breathe You!

I love You. Thank You. Amen.

(546 words ~ 9:31 a.m.)