Psalm 144:4 'Man is like a breath…’
A breath of man is fleeting, transient, insignificant. A breath of man is nothing; an exhale and it is gone, disappearing into the wind. But the breath of God is quite different. By the breath of God, dust was brought to life. By the breath of God, dust breathes.
'Then the LORD God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.' ~ Genesis 2:7
Mankind is uniquely created; by breath deep and directly into our beings. Each one of us is formed and crafted by the breath of God. His exhale is the life inside our fragile frames. His exhale is the treasure inside these jars of clay. The very same breath of God spoke creation, and it became. His breath is intrinsically creative and even now is creating us as it continues to saturate our lungs.
Man is like a breath… …a breath of God. Eternal.
A breath of God is never meaningless, never without purpose. My existence is never meaningless, never without purpose. No word of God is empty, not one returns to him unfulfilled. As every breath goes out from him, so it must return. Acknowledge the fabric of your being. Acknowledge the breath of your Creator and offer it back to him. Our surrendered lives will return to him bearing fruit, they cannot be empty. Multiplication is certain. All that he has spoken over us and all that he has spoken into us will be fulfilled. He is not a man that he should lie.
I am a breath of God. For this very reason I am intrinsically valuable. My created value is defined and determined by the breath of my Creator. Our lives have value, meaning, purpose – given by the identity and infinite worth of the One who gives us life. We live with eternal consequence.
Man is like a breath…
How valuable, how precious, how powerful, how creative, how unstoppable is a breath of God. How valuable, how precious, how powerful, how creative, how unstoppable am I.
His breath is first and last, he is Alpha and Omega. My first feeble breath as a new born child is of the same substance as the final breath of my Saviour. Once more, the breath of God brought new life from death, purpose from futility and hope from despair. Because it is finished, I am born again. His breath is my own.
The perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ was the ultimate act of praise and worship. The greatest outpouring of breath in this single act of utmost obedience.
Worship is the returning of our every breath to the lungs where it was born. Worship is our every exhalation returning to Him. It is him breathing us in, even as he once breathed us out. Our lives are thick with the aroma of Christ and our every exhalation rises as incense before the King. The remarkable power of sung worship is in the concentration of our breaths, coalescing into the fullness of the breath of the Bride. When our song rises as one, we conform to that first creative breath of God and return it to him in unified harmony.
Worship is home coming, realigning, yielding, returning. We return to the substance of our creation, we return to breath, we return to our Creator. We realise our created purpose is to be in unceasing unity with him, and this becomes our reality.
We enter into a moment of perfect communion and holy exchange. But in this mysterious moment it is not that the breath gives life to the being, but that the Being gives life to the breath. It is in this exchange, upon our return to him, that we are utterly transformed.
