Get links to my best stuff in your inbox

 

Home

Thanking God For The Breaths We Take

Have we ever thought about the fact that we breathe approximately 12 to 18 times per minute (see #44), and those breaths are automatically executed without us even having to think about them? Just think, if we have reached the plateau of 60 years of age (using the 18 times per minute figure), we have taken more than 567 million breaths. And each of those breaths was a measured gift from the hand of God (James 1:17; Acts 17:24-25).

It’s something to think about, isn’t it?

Most of us take our breathing for granted, but just a few minutes without breathing and we would lose consciousness. Shortly thereafter, death would be a reality.

Job records that the Lord holds in His hand “the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). He gives us the gift of breathing in and out each day so that we might honor and glorify Him with our lives (Isaiah 43:7; Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

The story is told of a preacher who was one day at the bedside of an elderly Christian lady who was near death. She asked him to read a Scripture from the Bible, and when he asked her what Scripture she wanted him to read, she said, “Make your own selection, preacher, but let it be one of praise.”

Although she was in the process of taking her last breaths on earth, she wanted her parting testimony to echo the sentiments of the Psalmist, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6).

Have we thanked God today for the breaths He has allowed us to take?

Let’s think about it, and then praise the Lord!