Every Breath

Welcome to today's edition of Our Daily Bread. Leslie Co. wrote our reading and he titled it Every Breath. When Tian came down with a rare autoimmune disease that weakened all his muscles and nearly killed him, he realized that being able to breathe was a gift. For more than a week, a machine had to pump air into his lungs every few seconds, which was a painful part of his treatment. Tian made a miraculous recovery and today he reminds himself not to complain about life's challenges.

I'll just take a deep breath, he says, and thank God I can. How easy it is to focus on things we need or want and forget that sometimes the smallest things in life can be the greatest miracles. In Ezekiel's vision, in Ezekiel 37, God showed the prophet that only he could give life to dry bones. Even after tendons, flesh, and skin had appeared, there was no breath in them. It was only when God gave them breath that they could live again. This vision illustrated God's promise to restore Israel from devastation. It also reminds me that anything I have, big or small, is useless unless God gives me breath. How about thanking God for the simplest blessings in life today? Amid the daily struggle, let's stop occasionally to take a deep breath and let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 1 through 3, 7 through 10, and verse 14. The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? I said, Sovereign Lord, you alone know. And now verses 7 through 10. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.

I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, Son of man, and say to it, This is what the Sovereign Lord says. Come, breath, from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them.

They came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army. And now here's verse 14. I will put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.

Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the gift of life and for every breath we take. We pray for the many people in our world who are suffering, especially those with illnesses that make it impossible for them to breathe. We ask for their healing. In their pain, may they sense your comfort, and in their healing, may they praise you for each breath. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.