There's a popular worship song a lot of you may have heard of and/or sung lately - it's called Breathe (written by Michael W. Smith?), and it starts out:
This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence, living in me
At 4:30am this morning I was reminded just how literally dependent I am on God for everything, even my next breath. At 4:30 this morning I woke up having an asthma attack. (Thank you nasty fall cold.) Lest you think this is a regular occurrence, the last time I remember this happening was the first time it happened - I was 12 years old.
It was a very sobering reminder that although for the most part my asthma is well managed and rarely causes me even discomfort let alone danger, I am living with a condition that could potentially kill me. We are all dependent on God for everything, including our next breath. I just have reason to be more acutely aware of it from time to time.
After I stopped panicking and very sensibly went downstairs to grab my inhaler - I lay in bed for a while wide awake, waiting for the pressure in my lungs to ease. I remembered a teaching I'd recently heard - on John 10:10 - "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full"
The person giving the teaching suggested that sometimes this may work itself out in a literal way - Satan would like us dead, if he could manage it, that we might no longer trouble him. Many times we as Christians think of this verse as more metaphorical (well of course, Satan wants to steal my peace of mind, kill my joy, and destroy my witness - thereby rendering me ineffective in the kingdom). And that is still true. But I know there have been times in my life (at least a good handful) where God has snatched my life (or my children's lives) out of the jaws of danger. As a tiny 2 week old baby, in the hospital with a lung infection from a milk allergy - as a 12 year old with severe bronchitis needing to be rushed to the hospital to be put in a oxygen tent - as a young working woman having my little economy car smashed into by a huge pickup truck running the red light - in pre-term labor with my first child and the cord was wrapped around his neck - as a young mother being rushed to the hospital because allergies overwhelmed my body and brought on a severe asthma attack.
And those are just the times I KNOW about. How many other countless times has God rescued me, my husband, or children from UNSEEN danger?
It's an awesome, incomprehensible thought that Satan considers little 'ole cream puff me an
Enemy of the State who needs to be done away with.
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