Spiritual Breathing
This is a very good practice to get into the habit of doing in your life and helps you to release whatever burden or heaviness you feel inside brought about my guilt, worry, or any kind of fear that entangles your heart.
Spiritual breathing is a discipline that comprises of two parts which are similar to physical breathing.
The first part is exhaling which tells us to confess whatever sins we have committed knowingly and even those that we have unconsciously done to God and humbly accept that you have sinned against Him and ask for His forgiveness and mercy.
In confessing our sins to God, I think Psalm 139:23-24 gives us a guide on how we can approach God regarding this:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
There are times when we know we have done wrong against God or our fellow men because we feel guilty about what we have done or we cannot sleep easy at night, tossing from side to side on our bed.
But there are also moments when we unknowingly commit sins or there are things hidden in our hearts - habits we could not break or idols we cannot let go of - and so we need God to reveal those things to us so that we can ask God to change us in our ways and we ourselves would be keen to avoid them.
These things that are hidden from us and only God can see may become hindrances for us to continue on our growth and maturity in the spirit. They may even cause us to fall back in our relationship with Him.
But we can humbly ask God to forgive us of these sins as well and the following verse explains why we can trust God in these situations also.
1 John 1:9 tells us that:
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
We have nothing to fear or worry about when we approach God and tell Him openly about the sins we have committed against Him and others because as the Bible tells us God is faithful and just and when we sincerely come to Him in repentance, He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
God wipes the slate clean for us and gives us another chance at living the righteous life for His glory.
The great thing about God is that He is a God of second chances and He is patient with us although we are most of the time impatient and hasty with Him.
We also know that God is gracious, loving, and full of compassion and He comes to our rescue when we call to Him. He shows us how much He cares by giving us Jesus not only to die for us but also to show us how to live.
The second part of spiritual breathing is inhaling which simply tells us that we should accept God's forgiveness and grace in our lives.
We need to recognize that our lives fall apart without God and we need His help and guidance because we have no right sense of direction in our lives and we do not know what we really need in our lives.
Asking God each day to forgive us and to thank Him for His mercy and grace is quite vital to our Christian walk and it is also one sign of humility and dependence upon God.
We realize that we are sinners and we have no power to redeem ourselves and that is why Jesus came into the world to be the door for us to enter a life of righteousness with the holy God.
Just as physical breathing helps us to function properly and live well every day of our lives so does spiritual breathing enable us to continue to stand in the righteousness of Jesus and to live a life that is pleasing to the Father so that He may be glorified through our lives.
God Bless!
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