Breathe.

Do you ever experience times in your life when you feel God is using a common theme or message to get your attention... that it seems to pop up every where?!

That's definitely been me over the past few days and it's been interesting to piece together... The word, you may ask?

Breath.

Not God informing me that I need a Tic-Tac...(HA!)... but the message & power of such a simple word and all the different ways it's popped up in my life. Go on this quick journey with me from the past few days:

Last weekend, as I was studying to teach my Freshman girls small group at Long Hollow, & our lesson was on Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37:1-14.
I've read this story many times before but actually stopping here and studying this passage, I've never done. To look into how this story relates to our lives & culture today in referring to having hope or on the flip side, feeling hopeless like the Israelite who were in captivity in Babylon. The focal point for the lesson was
  "My God can BREATHE life into me when I feel dry & hopeless!" --
Wow... I don't know about you but there are definitely days when I need to hear that statement and BELIEVE it!

Here is Ezekiel, standing in the valley that God brought him to, and it's filled with dry bones... SKELETONS! First of all CREEPY!! And not only to be there but to be there with no one else around but just you & God. Just think about the sight that he saw in that valley, and a few words come to mind- dead, lifeless, hopeless.
(Maybe it's just me, but that description sounds a whole lot like our world today without the life & hope of Jesus!!)

Then God poses a question to Ezekiel: "Son of man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel says, "Sovereign Lord, You alone know." Then the powerful command from the Lord to Ezekiel in verses 4-6, and Ezekiel obeys (vs.7... GO READ IT!) and he was able to witness one of the coolest events in the OT!

The bones come together, tendons grow together, and flesh appears on them... then God says, 'Come, BREATH; from the four winds & BREATHE into these slain, that THEY MAY LIVE!' (The Chris Tomlin song featuring LeCrae, "Awake My Soul" comes to mind at this point!) God, the GIVER of LIFE---- the BREATH OF LIFE --- enters these bodies and a vast army rises up to bring take Israel back from captivity in Babylon.
Just like in the Garden of Eden when God breathed life into the first man and GAVE life... Such a cool story of not  just seeing the natural, but the SUPERnatural and how God gave life to the dead, the lifeless, the hopeless! The application for us today is how he can breathe life into us when we ourselves are feeling dried up, useless & spiritually DRY! We must remember that he desires for us to live an ABUNDANT life through Jesus Christ!

Another encounter this last week with this word "BREATH," is a quote from Jennie Allen's book "Anything" that I read months ago and still resonates with me and has challenged me SO much to think kingdom minded and with my heart set on eternity...
She says in her book, (my paraphrase b/c a friend has my actual copy of this book)
'I want to live this life in such a way for the gospel that I get to heaven, out of BREATH, knowing I gave this life EVERYTHING I had to make a difference & bring God glory and make him famous while one this earth!'

Then today, as I was reading my one year chronological bible catching up in the book of Job about his life and his testing... He says in Job 7:7, "Remember, O God, that MY LIFE IS BUT A BREATH..."

So here I sit, with this word BREATH, that God keeps bringing to my mind as I've been studying His word... the lessons I believe He has shared with me I just felt led to share here as well... maybe someone who reads this blog post might just need to take away one of these lessons about the power of a breath....

1.) That God is the Giver of Life --- maybe you need the Breath of Life to fill you today -- maybe you're dried up, feel useless, and spiritually feel like you're in a desert! Maybe you've never been had the opportunity for God to breathe life into you - through the abundant life and SALVATION offered to you by His Son Jesus Christ?? I pray today that you experience Him, even for the first time, in this way!

2.) Maybe you resonated with the challenge from Jennie Allen's book - like I did, to live this life in such a passionate way that when we get to Heaven some day, we are out of breathe before the throne, KNOWING we gave this life EVERYTHING we had for the Lord while we were here! To live on purpose, and with His Kingdom and Eternity set in our hearts...

or 3.) Remembering the reality that this life is "BUT A BREATH"... we fret, worry and fear things that could happen in our lives here on Earth and we make WAY BIGGER DEALS over stuff that doesn't really matter. And the reality is, that we're only here for a breath. Yet, we find ourselves chasing after SO much other things that do not matter instead of chasing after God.

To be honest, I have a take-away & conviction for myself from all 3 of these lessons about "Breath". Maybe you do too, or maybe I'm just throwing this lesson out there and it was just meant for me?? Who knows?!

My prayer is that you allow God to breathe life into  you today --- to fill you up completely with Him, His hope, His peace, and His purpose for your life today!

Maybe you just need to stop... and BREATHE.