I’ve been counting a lot lately. I’ve been counting calories, fat, and sugar grams. I’ve also been counting money spent. You see, I would like to lose 10-15 pounds and also get into the habit of a stricter budget.
Both things are part of the “get Teri back into healthy habits” program. I’ve found that since I got pregnant for my now four year old daughter, I’ve fallen into some bad habits. I’m starting to see the consequences seep into my life in the way of a pudgier middle, lower energy, and less money at the end of the month.
I was eating lunch and reading labels so I could keep track of what I ate. I happened to look at my water bottle and saw a bunch of zeros staring back at me. There are absolutely no measurable caloric benefits from water. I pondered that for a moment. No nutritional benefits, yet we can’t live without it. In fact, we die very quickly without water. Our bodies can’t live without fresh water for more than three days.
Just then I thought about air. It really has no tangible substance to it. Without special tools, you can’t even measure it’s mass. It surrounds us yet we don’t even feel it. It brings life into our lungs and oxygen to our blood, yet we take it for granted. Our lungs take the good stuff in and expel the bad stuff without our conscious thought.
Air and water are crucial to our physical bodies just like the Holy Spirit and prayer are to our spiritual life. Before we accept Christ our spirit’s are dead. The confession of our sin and our belief in Christ open the door to allow the Holy Spirit in. He comes and breathes life into our spirit. He unites and becomes one with us – forever inseparable. Our interaction with Him is very much subconscious like breathing. He brings life to our spirits just like air brings life to our blood. Do you ever take in a deep, long breath and savor it as you feel it’s healing power?
Prayer is as important to our spiritual life as water is to our bodies. We can last awhile without it, but we become dehydrated, weak, disoriented, and parched. We were meant to be in constant dialog with our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit is in prayer on our behalf for us even when we don’t know it. (Romans 8:26-27) God longs for us to open our hearts in prayer to Him. He loves to hear and talk with His children. (Psalm 116:2)
Canned prayers we say in the morning, or at meal time, or before bed are like stale water to Him. Meaningless unless our hearts are in them. They are like the pre-recorded messages, “To make a payment, press one. To hear your account balance, press two…” Sometimes, we need to press zero and speak to a real person just to speak to a real person. THAT is what God desires in our prayers – to speak with a REAL person.
Without the air of the Holy Spirit and the water of prayers, our spiritual life is dead. Are you taking deep breaths of God? Are you becoming more and more aware of the Holy Spirit which dwells within you? Does the air in your spirit smell fresh like a spring day or like a dank, moldy basement?
Are you drinking in the sweetness of meaningful prayer with Your Father or are you dehydrated and parched. It just takes a little bit of effort to exercise those muscles which may be a just a little flabby. Take a deep, full breath and pour yourself a huge glass ice water.