Breathe

Phone’s ringing, your inbox is full, you’ve got five meetings booked this morning, you’ve just checked your bank balance and all this before 9.05am. Breathe.

I never thought 7 letters would change the course of my last 7 days quite so dramatically. I went on a course with some colleagues last week to learn about coping with stress. This skeptic was converted by two very simple but very effective things, but before I get to that I think it is important to note how much stress we are under.

I don’t know how you felt reading that first line, as I wrote it I began to feel stressed as I was reminded of my to do list, the things that I have ignored. I imagine a scene, you are walking down the road and people are bombarding you, picking things in your face, shouting in your ear, tapping you on the shoulder, how stressful yet that is the world we live in. Your heart is like water, imagine throwing things into this pool of water the still water begins to be churned until the stillness is gone, each thing like a stone thrown into your heart which ripples out into your day. Then there is this voice, God calls “be still and know that I am God…(psalm 46:10)” let’s be honest we want to do that don’t we, be still and to let go of the worry and anxiety of what might happen? I know I do but I struggle to know how to do that, I know what I want and I know the instruction of what to do but what I lack is the knowledge to know how to do it…that was until last Wednesday!

Breathe and meditate on God and his word. That’s it. Told you it was simple but it really works. Can I challenge you to get alone for 10 minutes, take some chilled music, your favourite verse or passage of scripture (Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. – Joshua 1:8)
The Hebrews would often use the word breath to describe God’s Spirit, spirit and breath were mixed. Breath is an goss entail to life yet we just don’t think about it. Take that ten minutes and with each breath inhale for five seconds and exhale for five, centre your thoughts on God and focus on his majesty, shut out the world and watch your mood change, your anxiety drift and your composure return. Will you do me a favour and let me know how you get on?
Job 33:4

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.