{"id":37087,"date":"2021-10-22T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/breath-of-god\/"},"modified":"2021-10-22T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:27:00","slug":"breath-of-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/breath-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Breath of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all know that breathing is essential to life. Each of us takes about 20,000 breaths each day. What is amazing about breathing is that it is an involuntary action&mdash;we don&rsquo;t even think about it. Our brains are programmed to instinctively monitor the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.<\/p>\n\n<p>When we breathe deeply, our brains send a message to the rest of our bodies to calm down and relax. When we breathe, we can intentionally lower our heart rates and bring down our stress levels.<\/p>\n\n<p>According to the Mayo Clinic, breathing &quot;may help ease symptoms of stress-related disorders and mental health conditions such as anxiety, general stress, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>With all of this in mind, Apple has created a notification App for their watch called, <em>Breathe<\/em>. The App reminds users to be mindful and focus on what is important in the moment.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Possible Preaching Angle:<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>The problem with the Apple watch is that notifications can be turned off or simply ignored. We can do the same thing with the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the very breath of God.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3997,4128,4129,4156,4157,4158,4159,4811,4891,5049,5054,5129],"tax_ctp_topics":[397,400],"class_list":["post-37087","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-focus","tax_ctp_tags-health","tax_ctp_tags-health-care","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit-filling-of","tax_ctp_tags-holy-spirit-indwelling-of","tax_ctp_tags-holy-week","tax_ctp_tags-resistance","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-growth","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-life","tax_ctp_tags-technology"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Breath of God - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/breath-of-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Breath of God - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We all know that breathing is essential to life. 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