Living a Truly Balanced LIfe...series ... Fresh Air

What I will be sharing in this series is out of the book that I have been reading. It is only going to end up being a total of two chapters from the book. When I read these chapters I knew that this was important information that I needed to share. I understand that some of these posts will be long - please take the time to read them.

We are gleaming this wisdom from the book "Hard To Be Lost - Good News: God won't give you up without a fight" by Morris Venden



1.

 Get plenty of fresh air every day.

 

" Air

 

The first one is pure air. Lamentations 3:55,56 says, "I called upon they name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. " Perhaps it was this verse that a Christin author had in mind when writing that "prayer is the breath of the soul."

When a baby is first born, breathing, I understand, is very important. In fact, it's top priority. My wife and I had the painful experience of attending a young mother -to-be and an anxious husband over a very ominous birth. We went to the university hospital as their supposed godfather and godmother. They later called us their parents, which gave us access to the ICU for babies. The doctor's premonitions were right. The baby was born not breathing. In fact, there wasn't much evidence of life. But they went to work immediately, and what a relief it was when the baby began to breath. That's the first thing the doctors want to know. They give the baby the traditional pat or shake or whatever, and everyone smiles when the baby breathes. We can't live very long without breathing. And could it be that in the spiritual realm, you are not going to be alive spiritually very long without prayer, the breath of the soul?

 



The admonition is for pure air, and I suppose we could call this the need for pure prayer. You mean there is some prayer that isn't pure? Evidently so. I'd like to remind you of the primary purpose of prayer. Apparently most Christians have the idea that the primary purpose of payer is to get answers, and whether or not they get answers determines whether they keep praying.

 

I'd like to suggest that if your primary purpose for praying is to get answers, you will stop paying before very long, because that is not the primary purpose of prayer, any more than getting  answers if the primary purpose of communication in marriage. Any kind of a normal relationship is based upon communication for communications sake, not jus to et answers. People talk for fellowship, they talk for fun, they talk for communication. They talk just to be together, and answers are secondary. The purest kind of prayer is for the purpose of relationship. Even though answers are not left out, and God still invites us to ask, that is not the primary purpose of talking to Him.

 

We're also invited to unceasing prayer, which would have to involve something more than just getting answers. I mean, how many answers can yo unceasing go for? Unceasing prayer, we are told, is the unbroken union of the soul with God. We're also told that, as wonderful as our initial conversion experience has been, no human being is righteous any longer than he has faith in God and maintains a vital connection with Him. Those who will devote some time every day to mediation and prayer and to the study of the Scriptures will be connected with heaven and will have a saving, transforming influence upon those around them. The life of prayer is essential to maintain the Christian life.

 

I suppose that one of the first things we notice when we don't have sufficient air is that our thinking begins to get hazy. If we are starving for oxygen, we can't think straight.

 

I remember one time going on a camping trip in a small vacation trailer. We wanted to go to the high country, to the snow. And, foolishly, there were eight of us in this little trailer that slept only four or five. In order to keep warm that night, we turned on the propane gas stove because the trailer had no heater. Well, I'm still here to tell about it, but we didn't realize what we were doing. My wife awakened in the middle of the night gasping for air, with a strange feeling that something was wrong. She somehow opened the window and saved all of us. But she had trouble thinking it through. When one goes without fresh air and oxygen, his or her thinking gets hazy. Perhaps there's a close relationship between this and the next item for preventive religion- proper diet. "

 

*********************************************************************

 

Review:

Fresh Air - Prayer -  Lamentations 3:55,56