Breath of the Almighty to Breathe through STRONG Emotions

But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding, Job 32:8.

Mark Tyrell talks about an old legend. According to the tale, Nasrudin was walking alone at night when he saw a group of people approaching in the far distance. Instantly, his imagination began to toy with him: "They are surely robbers!" he thought. "No, why just robbers? Murderers, cutthroats! About to set upon me, a lonely traveler, leave me for dead and steal all my possessions! How are my wife and children going to cope without me?!"

Nasrudin's heart began to pound. His mouth became as dry as his palms became wet. He shook from head to toe and found himself breathing like an unfit man running to the finishing line of his first marathon.

Having thoroughly terrified himself, he stumbled into a nearby graveyard and cowered shaking inside an open tomb, awaiting his fate. 

Meanwhile, the harmless strangers, concerned by his dramatic behavior, approached him and looked with compassion down into the tomb. "What, pray, are you doing down there?" they asked.

Nasrudin, calming down quickly, said: "Put it this way: I am here because of you and you are here because of me!" 

Anxiety, anger, fear and other strong emotions get us to that crazed point when we allow our imagination or catastrophizing to take control.  When this happens, our  "fight, flight, or freeze" mechanism initiates and we can no longer think clearly.  

Look at Job 32:8 above. It tells us that the breath of the Almighty gives us understanding.  In God's infinite wisdom, He gives us the key in His Word to the exact way to short-circuit the adrenaline flow caused by those strong emotions. Using the breath of the Almighty, we can inhale slowly, focusing on our God, His blessings, His promise to be our shelter, our ever present help in times of trouble, every good and perfect gift. Then, exhale slower still, allowing those emotions to leave with our breath.  Repeat this process as many times  as needed, concentrating ONLY on the healing, unfailing love of the Lord. If our minds start to imagine fear or anxiety, gently pull it back to God's goodness.  

I'm not saying that our fears and anxieties always turn out to be "harmless strangers," like Nasrudin's in the story above. We have real, concrete battles to fight, problems to solve. Cancer is real, losing loved ones to drugs and other addictions causes REAL, heart-wrenching pain. We need, however, to discard our false perception that we can control all outcomes.  Surrender control, admit that God is God (we are not), and breathe. Once we lean in to the Lord and stop fighting against Him, "the breath of the Almighty gives us understanding." Suddenly, we can think clearly again. Those problems to which we thought had no answers, once we are breathing in the Spirit, seem to have logical solutions. 

Just breathe. Breathe in the Holy Spirit; breathe in His peace, His compassion, and breathe in His infinite wisdom.