Daily Devotional

Where do you get your inspiration from? Do me a favor; I want you to take a deep 15-second diaphragm breath. You're going to inhale for six seconds, hold for two seconds, and exhale for seven seconds. Ready?Inhale...1...2...3...4...5...6...hold...2...exhale...2...3...4...5...6...7. How do you feel? Good? Alive? Yep, that’s by design. Breathing is one of the indicators that you are alive.

My pride and joy are my two sons William (6) and Winston (4), but when William was born there were several complications. After over 12 hours of labor, I was finally able to "see" my firstborn baby boy, but Alexis couldn’t "hear" him. When he arrived, in the dramatic fashion that he did, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. I didn't even get the opportunity to cut the cord because as soon as he came out, the doctors swarmed around him jostling for position. Alexis couldn’t hear him because he wasn't crying and because he wasn’t crying then that meant that he wasn’t breathing. So the doctors took him over to the corner of the room. And after what felt like eons but must have only been a few seconds, I heard the tiniest and the cutest gasp for air that I've ever heard in my life followed by the sound of my son crying, he's alive.

This is the image that I think about in Genesis 2:7. The Spirit of God hovering over the lifeless body of Adam. Looking at the man he formed from dust and then breathing into his nostrils the very breath of life and then…(*Gasp Sound)…man became a living creature. Inspiration can be defined as, “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” And most people stop right there. But is also defined as "the drawing in of breath." Now you can be mentally stimulated to do or feel something by a whole lot of things. But for the Christian, true inspiration comes from the Spirit of the living God breathing life into our lungs. The breath of life inspired by God.

If we are looking for a little inspiration, then we ought to look no further than the graciously inspired Word of God, that is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. There ought not be inspiration apart from the Word of God. From God's word comes life and all life and inspiration is breathed into man by the Spirit of the living God. God's word is our inspiration.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.