BREATHING
Several years ago, a
stand-up comic, famous for his delivery of “one-liners,” celebrated his 91st
birthday.
The occasion brought all his
friends and relatives together, and it was well attended by news reporters.
During an interview at the party, the predictable first question asked was, “To
what do you attribute your longevity?”
Without missing a beat, the
comic replied, “Breathing!”
Who can argue with that?
We could say the same thing
in a spiritual sense. Just as physical life depends on breathing physical air,
so all spiritual life depends on the Holy Spirit, or the Holy “Breath” … The Greek word for “spirit” is pneuma, which can be translated “wind” or
“breath.”
The apostle Paul
describes life in the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, verses 5 and 6:
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”
The Holy Spirit makes his
home in those who believe the gospel, Paul says, and the Spirit bears fruit in
a person’s life:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love,” we read in Galatians 5:22. “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
This fruit not only
describes how we live when the Spirit lives in us, it describes how God treats us.
God is love, the apostle
John assures us, and the degree to which we understand and live in God’s
love is the degree to which we walk in our life’s purpose. We’re here to bear
that fruit, to be a blessing to everyone around us.
When we’re living in the Spirit, that’s when our
lives are the most fulfilling and rewarding. That’s when we feel the most
alive, the most invigorated.
To what do we owe our spiritual longevity? To breathing the Breath of God. To life in
the Spirit, the life that is lived by faith in the Son of God.
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking
of LIFE.