Under a rock. That’s probably where you think I have been. Though during some moments, I have definitely felt that way, I assure you I have not. Last year, around the time that ITCOTD was birthed, I made the decision to return to school and though this journey has been most enriching, it does not yield much time for any of my other ventures. Know that although I have not been able to share my thoughts with you all, God has continued to show himself mighty in my life and has been finding me in the cool of the morning, in the cool of midnight and even at times in the cool of my lunch break! He finds me precisely where I am in the moments in which He so chooses to speak to my heart and for that I am grateful.
COVID. It is everywhere. It is impacting everything that we do and how we do it. I do not know a single person that has not been directly impacted by this pandemic that has come in and changed our lives forever. In history, many can reflect on exactly where they were and exactly what they were doing when they heard the news that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. In my generation it was September 11th and for the new generation it will be COVID-19. Being in health care I see the effects that this disease has had on those that have suffered from its existence. Losing the ability to do something so natural such as breathing is humbling. Those that at one point lost this vital faculty now treasure every breath that they take. It occurred to me “Why Breathing?” “Why the lungs?” Why not have a virus that nibbles off the tips of our toes? Then it clicked.
In Genesis 2:7, man is formed and it says “God breathed life into his nostrils and man became a living being.” Without air, without breath; what are we? We are forms, vessels, molds, dwellings, shells; all things that are created to hold or carry something else. The bible doesn’t say that God created a heart and placed it within the man’s chest and he became a living being, it says that He breathed life into him. I believe that this was scripted this way and, in this order, so that all would know that the shell does not make the man, the breath of God does. The vessel simply possesses the potential but without the fuel, without the energy, without the source it cannot function. Think of a car. The car has the ability to carry us from destination to destination however, without gas or the engine or the various other mechanics, it simply has the potential. To take it a bit deeper, the engine may even be in the vehicle but without the oil, the engine will malfunction and will still not be able to do what it was created to do. EVERYTHING NEEDS THE OIL!
The relationships you are in, they may be nice. He or she may treat you like no one else ever has but without the breath of God breathing life into it, it simply has potential. That amazing job you have that has allowed you to live the life that you live may very well be all you ever imagined, but without the breath of God breathing into it, it simply has potential. The breath of God is what takes a thing from potential to operational. When something is operating it is functioning in the capacity for which it was created. A vehicle sitting in the back yard is still a vehicle but it only has potential to drive, it isn’t operational. A television is a television, but without power being delivered to it, it is simply a screen. Believing that your goals and dreams will come true is all well and good but without God breathing life into it, it simply has the potential for greatness. We want the manifestation of functionality! Yes, prayer changes things but without the breath of God on your lips as you call out to Him it is lacking the necessary altitude that is required for it to make it to the throne room of Heaven. And we, mere clay without the breath of God are simply shells moving about life lacking purpose, vision or fuel needed to birth that which we were called to. Blood is the mechanism that is used to carry oxygen throughout our bodies. If that doesn’t make your feet shuffle, what will! Literally, the blood carries His spirit!
Think it not strange that we are commanded to go forth into all the earth and preach the Gospel and yet we have a pandemic that has done just that. There is not a corner of this earth that this plague has not touched. So many have asked for God to be removed from the areas of our day to day lives where we don’t feel He “fits in.” Know that in removing him, we remove His breath. Have we suffocated ourselves because we have chosen to live life our own way? Have we forgotten that we live, move and have our existence simply because He sees fit? Am I saying that those that have been impacted are being punished for a wrong doing? Absolutely not, however I encourage you to look around and see what areas of your life are lacking the breath of God and ask yourself if it is truly thriving or if it simply has the potential to.
I invite you to pray this prayer with me:
Lord, we thank you for life. We thank you for the breath in our lungs. We thank you for loving us and for allowing us to continue on the paths that you have for our lives. Father, we ask for your grace and your mercy. We ask that you send healing to our lives and to our land. We ask that just as you hovered in the beginning that you would send your spirit to do it again. We ask that you search our hearts and our lives and reveal to us those places that are in need of your breath. As we are on the heels of honoring your Son’s resurrection, we thank you for the sacrifice that was made. We thank you for the grace that was shown and for the reconciliation of relationship back to you. In your mighty name we pray, Amen.
Thank you for partaking in this journey of enlightenment with me.
May God continue to find us in the cool of the day.
Selah
By Kimberly Robinson
