January 21, 2011
If we are honest, we’d admit that we all deal with bad breath from time to time, don’t we?
But the Fresh Breath I’m talking about isn’t entirely in our mouths… although it will greatly affect our mouths and the aromas we carry with us and spill onto others.
The kind I’m talking about won’t come as a surprise to the regular readers of mine, but it sure will be a shock to those who have googled “fresh breath” or “bad breath” and were offered a link to a prayer to cure it! (If that is you, dear Google reader, please read on… this might be the answer to a question you didn’t even know you were asking.)
During the Advent season, I read a prayer by the 6th-century monk, Columbanus. This request made such an impact on me that I ask the same thing of the Lord every day for myself and my family.
“Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love,
Columbanus
since we ask nothing other than that You give us Yourself.
For You are our all; our life, our light, our salvation,
our food and our drink, our God.
Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus,
with that breath of Your Spirit.”
I shortened this request to “O Lord, give us Yourself! Inspire our hearts with the breath of Your Spirit” and kept it on our family chalkboard.
And I have watched the Lord do just that! When I ask Him for Himself, and for the breath of His Spirit to inspire and motivate me, He pours over and into me a new love for Jesus and His Word with an energy to serve Him in even the “little” things in life. Holy Breath!
But recently, I realized that I not only want Holy Breath, I want Fresh Holy Breath.
Did you know that often bad breath is caused by something internal? Much of it is a result of what’s going on in the gut or stuck on the tongue. We remedy unpleasant breath by changing what we consume, and by making use of the tools we have to scrape our tongues, brush our teeth, and rinse our mouths. If we faithfully do these things, the aroma flowing from us will be much more pleasant and fresh.
The same is true for Christians {Believers in Jesus Christ, Christ Followers}. It is possible to have great-smelling breath in the physical sense, while being unaware of a lurking, debilitating case of Spiritual Halitosis that is offensive and off-putting. I
Like our physical breath, our spiritual breath is a result of what’s going on inside of us, what we’re consuming, and how often we make use of the tools provided to stay cleansed.
How do I know this? Because I’ve had it. I wake up with it every day (both physically and spiritually). So, I brush my teeth and use mouthwash for fresh physical breath, and I confess, repent, and seek the things of God for fresh spiritual breath.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Psalm 139: 23-24 (NLT)
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Remaining perpetually cleansed through immediate confession is like brushing our tongues and teeth right after eating garlic bread. If we repent (agree with God about the horrible seriousness of the sin and what it cost Jesus, ask for forgiveness and help to never do it again, and turn ourselves 180 degrees from it), it will help us stay Fresh in the Lord.
Fresh Holy Breath is made even sweeter as the Holy Spirit helps us eat God’s Word (Jeremiah 15:16), thank and praise the Lord (Psalm 69:30), and walk obediently with Him (John 14:21).
And what will spill from us onto others {many of whom are not Christ Followers} will be a pleasing aroma – to them and to the Lord.
Oswald Chambers talked about Freshness in his Jan 20, My Utmost For His Highest devotion.
“Being born again from above is a perennial,
Oswald Chambers
perpetual and eternal beginning;
a freshness all the time in thinking and in talking and in living,
the continual surprise of the life of God…
Freshness does not come from obedience but from the Holy Spirit;
obedience keeps us in the light as God is in the light…”
So, to my current friends, and to my new friends who googled about bad breath (wink), this is what I now pray – it is my prayer for Fresh Breath – so that I can live a life with an aroma pleasing to The Lord that rises from within and without:
“O Lord, please give me Yourself! For You are my All; my Life, my Light, my Salvation, my Food and my Drink, my God. Inspire my heart today with the Fresh Breath of Your Spirit in thinking, talking, and living (actions and reactions). For Your glory, O Lord.” A men… So be it!
2 Corinthians 2:14
“But thanks be to God,
who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ
and through us spreads everywhere
the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”
This is the kind of Fresh Breath whose impact will be everlasting.
