The Breath of Life

During the current pandemic, the whole point of self-quarantining, wearing masks, and other precautions is to prevent the breathing in of the COVID-19 virus because it is transmitted through droplets in the air.  Breathing in this air can quite literally be fatal. Ironically, the Bible also has a lot to say about breathing. To borrow an expression from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, it is like a “good infection”.  Let’s look at three examples of how God’s breath gives us life and consider our response to them.

John 20:22 - And with that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Things to think about:

·      Genesis 2:7 – “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

o   We owe our very physical presence to God breathing life into us.

o   Job 34:14-15 – “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”

·      John 20:22 – “And with that He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

o   Oxygen is what allows us to keep on living. Jesus breathed into us an eternal source of life through the Holy Spirit.

o   We don’t take one gulp of air to last a lifetime but it is a continuous process.

§  How do we practice spiritual breathing?

·      2 Timothy 3:16 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”

o   Our source for knowledge and wisdom has the very breath of God as its source.

·      Psalm 150:6 – “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD”

·      Sometimes people (Christians included) wear masks so as to NOT breathe in God’s breath

o   What are some of these masks?

o   Why do we wear them?

·      Without overworking the analogy here too hard, how can we be spiritual ventilators to those who are struggling to take in God’s breath?

o   Isaiah 42:5-7 - This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
    who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
    who gives breath to its people,
    and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
    I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people
    and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
    to free captives from prison
    and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

o   We can only give what we have already been given.        

§  Breath is Life – pass it on!