Breathing!
In my last blog, I talked about the importance of breathing. And you may be thinking what does breathing for our physical life have to do with prayer. I believe that prayer is just as important in keeping our spiritual body alive as it is for breathing to keep our physical body alive. And both are intertwined.
I remember the day that I woke up and I felt so depressed I didn’t want to get out of bed and I did not. It is hard to even explain the feeling I felt. And you might be thinking, “You can’t go by your feelings.” There is truth to that but I can say only those who have dealt with deep depression can begin to understand. It is something that is out of your control. Believe me, it was one of the most devastating times of my life. It is like being in prison and unable to get out. The panic is unbelievable. I couldn’t “breathe” (pray) and I felt the life draining out of me and I couldn’t stop it. I would try to “breathe” (pray) but my “throat” was closing up and I was suffocating.
Thankfully I had a friend that had been through a time in her life with deep depression. She was someone who understood and would encourage me. My friend got me a little journal. She told me that every time I would read something in God’s Word or something would happen that was encouraging to me that I should write it down so I could look at it again and again when needed. To be honest, I was seeing nothing in God’s Word that was an encouragement, all I could see is condemnation. I even read the story of the prodigal son and I could not see the love of God. But I kept being persistent. I didn’t read my Bible every day but I would try to keep picking it up and reading now and then.
This went on for weeks and weeks. Then one day I read a verse that actually penetrated my heart. It is a verse that is so famous and we all know. This is my entry in my journal May 2, 2000, “ ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ John 3:16. This is the first thing that I have been able to read in a long time. The Lord brought this to me. He loves me.”
Fresh air
I compare prayer to breathing. It is the breath of the soul and without it our spiritual life is dead. As I was going through my time of depression I kept crying out to God in desperation just like I cried out to my husband when I couldn’t breathe. It was like God was saying to me, “It is okay I am here. Slow down, take your time and breathe in slowly. I will give you life.”
After I found that verse things started to move very slowly. I was taking little gasping “breaths”. But I was still getting “oxygen”. How could this verse seem like I had never read it before? I grew up a Christian I had known this verse all my life. But at that moment it felt like something different. I was able to go to God and breathe in the “fresh air” he was giving me.
Then I picked up my journal to write again. God had filled my lungs with the “fresh air” of continual prayer that I was able to see even more clearly what He had for me. Here was my entry, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore” Psalm 121:1-8.
The amazing part about this entry is that it took place on May 5, 2001, almost 1 year to the day of my first entry. From that day I was able to put more entries in more often and I no longer felt like I was suffocating. My “breathing” (praying) was no longer shallow and hard to do. My “breathing” (praying) changed that day, I started receiving “fresh air” and I could “breathe” (pray) deeply now. And prayer started to unlock the windows of heaven.
Daily need
Prayer is needed daily. Just like we cannot go without breathing we cannot go without prayer. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, “Pray without ceasing.” This doesn’t mean that we will be on our knees 24/7. But we need to always have that continual connection with God throughout the day.
How long can you hold your breath? Most untrained people cannot hold their breath more than around 30 seconds before gasping for air. And it is more about the build-up of carbon dioxide than it is of lack of oxygen. The longest holding breath on record to date is around 22 minutes and he did it underwater. Most of us would die before we made it through that experience. God has given us a body that has a need for fresh oxygen constantly. And when we don’t give our bodies the oxygen that it needs damage starts to happen. Your brain begins to be affected after 6 minutes without oxygen. That is why there is such a concern to get oxygen to someone right away because of the brain damage it can cause.
The same is true of prayer. Prayer is like oxygen to the soul. How can we go without prayer? “Carbon dioxide” (sin) starts to build up in the life and it will cause damage to our brain spiritually speaking. We no longer feel a need for prayer and we start slowly dying spiritually. “Breathing” (prayer) is so important.
I don’t have time
You might be thinking, “How can I pray without ceasing?” I don’t have much time to pray. And now you’re saying I need to be praying all the time” What I would as is, “Do you have time to breathe?” You don’t want to die so you breathe. How desperate are you to live, spiritually speaking? We need to become how I felt when I couldn’t breathe physically. I was desperate for air and I was not getting it. We have to be so desperate for spiritual oxygen that God becomes the priority in our lives.
One thing that I have learned is choosing to take time for prayer time expands my time. I am an early riser and spend time in prayer and study. I have always had a time of prayer, maybe 5 minutes. But I have felt the need many times to spend more time in prayer with things that are burdening my heart. And the more time I pray the more time I have. You say, “What? That is impossible.” But what I say, “With God all things are possible.”
A lot of times I will have a short prayer time before I get into studying God’s Word. And the plan is that after I study I will have a longer prayer time. When I do things that way I never have more time. But I have found that when I have a longer prayer time first I have plenty of time for my study. As I pray it is almost like time stands still. It seems impossible but that’s God.
Pray without ceasing
But what about the “without ceasing” part? It is really about the attitude of prayer. We are so in connection with God we are constantly lifting up praise and request throughout the day. But, you might be thinking, what about at night? One thing I like to do, which I am not as consistent as I want to be, is be thinking on God’s Word or praying as I drop off to sleep. I have that when I do this my nights are different. The dreams I have through the night are different or I may not even dream, at least that is what it seems like. And might night of sleep is still better.
The most amazing part of going to bed with your last thoughts on God is what happens when you wake up throughout the night. When I wake up my thoughts immediately go back to prayer or thinking upon God’s Word mode. And as I get up to use the bathroom I choose to continue those thoughts instead of diverting them to other things. When I get back in bed it is seconds and I am back to sleep. All I can tell you is that it is amazing! I want to strive to have this experience more often. I have not experienced this the majority of my life but I want to be.
In this earths history, we don’t have time to stop “breathing” (praying) or to “breathe” shallowly. We have got to take deep “breaths” all day long. When we learn to breathe physically as we should with deepness rather than shallow breathing it brings physical life and health. The same is true with prayer.
Dear Father,
We tend to get caught up in the things of life that keep us from “breathing” deeply, forgive us. Help us to strive to do better so that our spiritual life will become healthier in You. We have but a short time. Game playing is over! Help us to realize how much we need You. Thank You for the power that You have given us availability to. It is most amazing! Thank You for Your love and forgiveness.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Commit today to “breathe” more so that your spiritual life will live.
Love you all!
What do you do to help bring your prayer life more meaning and help you remember to do “deep breathing”? And what were the benefits you received?
This is part 6 in a several part series “Maintaining Healthy Immune Function”. There are many things I will be sharing with you on how to support your immune system, both physically and spiritually. Although what I am sharing is not exhaustive, I am sharing just a taste from my own experience. In part 5 I talked about how fresh air and breathing right helps us maintain healthy immune function. Coming up in part 7 I will be talking about how important proper rest is for the body and how it helps us maintain healthy immune function. Stay tuned!