Just Breathe!
I learned a great spiritual lesson from my granddaughter
when she was less than a day old!
During her first twenty-four hours, she developed a common
condition called transient tachypnea; essentially, she was breathing too fast. Here's a description of what causes this to happen.
While inside the
mother, a developing baby does not use the lungs to breathe — all oxygen comes
from the blood vessels of the placenta. During this time, the baby's lungs are
filled with fluid. As the baby's due
date nears, the lungs begin to absorb the fluid. Some fluid also may be
squeezed out during birth as the baby passes through the birth canal. After
delivery, as a newborn takes those first breaths, the lungs fill with air and
more fluid is pushed out. Any remaining fluid is then coughed out or slowly
absorbed through the bloodstream and lymphatic system. In babies with TTN, though, extra fluid stays
in the lungs or is cleared out too slowly. This makes it harder for a baby to
breathe in oxygen properly. As a result, the baby must breathe faster and
harder to get enough oxygen into the lungs.1
The doctors and nurses took good care of our little one,
reassuring mom and dad that this was relatively normal, and would subside as
she adjusted to her new life outside the womb.
They took some precautions, watching her carefully.
One of the side affects was her ability to eat, as it is
hard to suck and swallow when you are struggling to breathe! They would not let her nurse while her breathing
rate was up so high. They had two
choices: they could feed her with a
small tube through her nose or mouth, or get her breathing rate down so she
could nurse. What they discovered was
that if Little Miss was placed on her mama’s chest, skin to skin (literally as
close as they could get), her breathing would slow down, and amazingly, she
would breathe in time with her mama!
What a great picture of our spiritual life!
Before we come to Christ, we are from another world. We live and breathe the “fluid” of our
fleshly life – our old nature. As we are
born again into spiritual life, that old nature is pushed out, and replaced by the
Spirit of life. God’s Spirit fills our
spiritual lungs, and indwells us. We
begin to live on the breath of God. But
often, our old nature “hangs around,” taking its time to get out of our
system! We struggle learning to breathe
and live and walk this new Spirit-life.
How do we overcome our old nature? We get as close as we can to our heavenly
parent – our Father. We lay aside
anything that is a barrier between us – any sin, any unbelief, anything of our
old life that we are holding onto – and rest in His embrace. We listen to His heart, and we submit
ourselves to living and breathing in time to His Spirit – His ways. The closer we are to Him, the easier it is to
be in step with His Spirit.
Interestingly, the more we are hindered by our old life, the
less spiritual nourishment we are likely to take in! As long as we are “breathing” the fluid of
our old life, the less we take in of the rich milk of God’s Word. But as we are in step with Him, we are able
to learn and understand and grow from the spiritual food He provides!
How’s your spiritual breathing? Are you struggling? Do you feel overwhelmed, like you can’t get a
good deep breath?
Stop trying to live this new life in your old ways. Give it up.
Lay aside anything that hinders your relationship with God, and rest in
Him – rest on Him. Listen to His heart,
and breathe.
Genesis 2:7 - Then the
Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living being.
Job 33:4 - The Spirit
of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Job 32:8 - But it is a
spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
Acts 17:24-25 – The God
who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as
though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath
and all things.
John 6:63 - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
***
1 http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/ttn.html
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