Worship by Numbers

Psalm 150

Praise the LORD!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD!

I love it when psalms and songs talk about using our breath to honor God. Especially about letting our every breath be offered to Him in worship and prayer.

This thought first resonated in my soul while I was having my very first asthma attack. I was 29 years old. Earlier that day my mother was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer.

That evening my chest felt tight, and I woke up I in the very early morning to find that my breathing had became quite difficult and somewhat painful, though not at all life-threatening. So, I decided not to wake up my roommates or call 911. I got in the most comfortable position I could, and found myself praying for each breath. “Thank you, Lord. Could I have one more?”

As the morning dawned and my roommates found out I had been praying for every breath, they told me to wake them up next time, and let them take me to the ER.

Every day since, it has been the cry of my heart to use every breath that I am given to honor God. That day was April 12, 1991.

Almost 10 million minutes have passed since April 12, 1991. If I breathe an average of 20 times per minute, that means I have had almost 200 million chances to use a breath to honor God in some way. I know that is a big number, but it is finite. And it is not even as big as our $12.7 Trillion national debt. We talk about numbers in the billions and trillions all the time.

Here is an interesting comparison, just to help us get our minds around the numbers.

According to Forbes, Oprah Winfrey’s net worth is $2.5 billion. If somebody gave me a dollar for every breath I have breathed since my first asthma attack, Oprah would have about 10 times more money that I would have.

In March 2009, Oprah donated $40 million to the Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. That donation would amount to one dollar for every 5 breaths I have taken since that asthma attack. Interestingly enough, Oprah Winfrey’s main claim to fame is being a talk show hostess. She earned all that money by using her breath!

God has given us an average lifespan of 70 years, which is about 36 million minutes. At 20 breaths per minute, that is only 735 million breaths. In my case, I wasted the first 232 million breaths speaking curses, blasphemies and selfish nonsense. I have spent the second 232 million breaths worshipping the Almighty God of heaven and earth.

If we are going to cultivate hearts of worship while we are trapped in this mortal timeline, we might choose to spend our finite number of breaths to speak words about Him that are true and good. Thank Him. Praise Him. Pray to Him. Worship Him. To speak the truth about Him.

That is what He gave us breath for.

The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
-Job 33:4

May God grant you a heart of wisdom!

Worship by Numbers
Ramona Denton

It is possible to experience an awakening in this life through realising just how precious each moment, each mental process, and each breath truly is.
~Christy Turlington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 1:32 am and is filed under Inspirational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.