God’s Message,
    the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
    laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
    makes them alive with his own life: The Message.

We only breathe because God gives us breath; we only live because He generously gives us His life.

Our Creator is also our Sustainer.

The ‘deists’ effectively believed that God wound up the universe and left it to tick like a clock. It was a case of, ‘You’re on your own now.’ God made it, but He wasn’t involved in maintaining it. But this is not the picture painted by the Bible. In the Scriptures we discover that, the Lord, having made the universe, is intimately engaged in all the fine details of running it. This includes our personal lives.

One of Matthew Henry’s points in his pattern for prayer (1.11) says:

‘I must acknowledge my dependence upon God and my obligations to him as my Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor.’

Indeed, Henry writes regarding today’s verse: ‘Now this is prefixed to God’s covenant with the Messiah, and the commission given him to show that the work of redemption was to restore man to the allegiance he owes to God as his Maker.’

”The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4.

Prayer: I found it helpful to use these words in forming prayers for people I know who need God’s healing. May His life in them overcome, and chase out, every manifestation of sickness and death.