This is my ongoing prayer during this chapter of my life. I am quite certain that many of you can identify with the need to pray this also.
“Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.” Psalm 143:4
This verse comes from a chapter where David is being pursued by an enemy. He is literally, and figuratively, at the end of his human strength. I would not presume to believe that my situation is nearly as dire as his because my personal safety is not at risk…but the fact still remains that ongoing major stresses in life can cause my spirit to faint. I have had many times when my throat tightens, tear well up, my heart begins to race and I just want the situation to pass as quickly as possible.
Fainting is a temporary thing! That is the first good news. As believers in Jesus, our souls may faint in the moment – but they do not expire. …take some time to take that in fully.
The Lord is our encouragement when our soul faints. We do not have to conjure up the strength to encourage ourselves. I can attest to the fact that self-talk to encourage myself it rarely successful. However, when we allow God to breathe and infuse encouragement into us, it is always successful!
How is “breathe” different from “infuse”?
Breathe in this context is not inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. Rather it is a transitive verb meaning “to send out”, as in God sends out His encouragment and we are the recipient of that encouragement.
Infuse is also a transitive verb meaning “to cause to be permeated with something (such as a principle or quality) that alters usually for the better”.
So, although “breathe” is a beautiful word that brings to mind relaxation, joy, peace and – in this case – encouragement… I believe “infuse” gives a better word picture of how God brings encouragement to you. Since infuse means to permeate or be saturated with something outside of ourselves – an infusion of God’s encouragement ALWAYS alters us for the better. It is a literal taking over of our faint spirits via permeating encouragement!
Join me as I pray to – speaking figuratively – wallow (indulge in an unrestrained way) in God’s mud puddle until our spirits are revived!
caringhansen 