The Miracle of Breath

THE MIRACLE OF BREATH

"I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well." Psalm 139:14

Have you ever stopped to think just how truly amazing YOU are? I am not talking about your personality or your good looks -- I am talking about the way God designed YOUR physical body -- the one that HE fashioned and molded while you were inside your Momma's womb.

Are you breathing? I mean really -- do you take for granted that He has given you breath? Dr. James Robinson wrote about breathing in his book, THE MIRACLE OF BREATH:

Consider the journey of an oxygen atom. The same atom, which at this moment hovers around your nostrils, was once in the lungs of a dinosaur.

The journey begins when air passes through your nose where unwanted dust and debris is filtered out. For what it's worth, the average person moves about 440 cubic feet of air every day! You ought to have a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day.

The oxygen atom travels trough the trachea into the lungs. The surface area of your lungs is forty times greater than the surface of your entire body -- all compressed within the tiny confines between your ribs. The oxygen atom then hitchhikes with hemoglobin and travels throughout the entire human body via blood vessels. If those blood vessels were laid end to end they would be approximately 100,000 miles long.

The blood vessels in your body could wrap around the equator four times! At the end of the journey, oxygen enters individual cells, bonds with the food we eat and releases energy. Biologists call it cellular respiration. I'd call it a miracle ...

Webster defines a miracle as 'an extraordinary, unusual wonder or marvel. Isn't a bloodstream 100,000 miles long, in a small body an unusual wonder? Isn't the journey of an oxygen atom a true marvel? We don't need supernatural events to experience a miracle! All we need is breath. The human breath is Sacred. Cherish your breathing: it is a miraculous gift of life.

And by the way -- David also wrote: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!" The average person takes approximately 23,000 per day. Preacher/teacher Mark Batterson says we owe God approximately 23,000 thank you's and praises every day.

Brothers: we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Are you using your breath to praise the Lord? Have you ever stopped to thank Him for the miracle of breath? -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 27; 1 Kings 1-2; Luke 19:28-48

Dig This Quote: All of us have wondered at times why God doesn't do more to fix our problems. But our human eyes often fail to see that God isn't rushing to change our circumstances because he is concerned with a much more serious problem - our character. While you struggle with the woes of this world, God's main occupation is preparing you for the world to come. The focus of what God is doing in your life takes place in you, not around you. Andy Stanley

Determined Digging: Determined Digging: Level 1: Proverbs 3:5-6; Level 2: Psalm 62:5-8