With Every Waking Breathe

By Josh Weisbrod in Uprising in Worship on 9/2/10

Today i was listening to a song by the band Ivoryline and the very first verse of the song really struck me as important. Here are the lyrics.

We should scream “thank you”
with every waking breath.
And cry “mercy! mercy” at every day’s end.
Yet we remain quiet and comfortable in our A to B lives.
We’re so quiet and comfortable in our A to B lives.

I love the thought that we as children of a merciful God should wake up thanking Him for every breathe. Normally when I wake up in the morning my first thoughts are of trying to get back to sleep or figuring out what my dog is barking at, when instead the focus of my mind and heart should be on the mercy that i recieve every day. What a great blessing it is to wake up every day knowing that you recieve mercy on that day, yet so many times we forget to even thank the Lord for that gift. The reality is that we should be praising His name in the morning. We should be excited about waking up to another day of mercy. Psalms 57 says:

8 Awake, my soul!
    Awake, harp and lyre!
    I will awaken the dawn.
9 I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing of you among the peoples.
10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Personally I find it so comforting knowing that such a mighty and loving God gives me mercy each new day. Some days when you wake up you can be overwhelmed immediately. We can feel like we are surrounded on all sides by the troubles of life. The great thing about what David wrote in the Psalms is that he begins asking for refuge and mercy, but then when his heart starts to focus on the greatness of God he is overcome with praise. He begins to cry out to God with thanks. Matt Redman wrote in Unquenchable Worshipper that “The heart of God loves a persevering worshipper who though overwhelmed by many troubles, is overwhelmed even more by the beauty of God”.

The cry of our hearts should be of thanks to God for who He is. How different would our days be if we thanked and praised God with our waking breathe?

here is a link to the song Days End by Ivoryline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4z2LY8RrHw&ob=av2e

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