His Breath

Posted on March 27, 2020 by Sarah Bernadac

This week I have been thinking a lot about my breath. I love breathing and taking a full breath of fresh air into my lungs – I think we all do. I have never had a serious lung issue, but I have had moments of anxiety in college and as a young adult when I felt that it wasn’t possible to get a full breath, and they were terrifying. As I listen to the news and watch the hospitals and doctors repeat over and over the desperate need for more ventilators – I am finally realizing that it is our (His) precious breath that is being taken away.

Exactly a year ago today, I wrote a blog titled “Breath of God“. My prayer last year was…

My Lord, I pray that You guard every utterance of my mouth so that the words I speak will never again pollute the sweet scent of Your breath, but instead will carry forth from my being to bring You Eternal Glory.

Right now, while we still have His Breath in our lungs let us truly Glorify Him with every breath we take, we must pray without ceasing. I have found that
breathing in on -Je and out on the –sus
OR
breathing in on the -Thank and out on the -You
align perfectly with my inhale and exhale rhythm.

Genesis 2:7 – Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Footprints

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Sarah Bernadac

As I walk along a beach covered in the visible footprints of today, and in the hidden footprints of many yesterdays and tomorrows – I praise and thank You, O Lord, for directing my steps into the footprints of those who walk in Your ways, and I praise and thank You, O Lord, for leading in Your ways those whose footprints I walk in. Amen.

Psalm 25:4
Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths.

Psalm 86:11
Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

Blessed are the eyes that truly see…

Posted on May 4, 2017 by Sarah Bernadac

On New Year’s Eve we had dinner with our family. I love going around the table and giving everyone a chance to give thanks for something from the year.

As always when it was my turn, my eyes welled up with tears, my throat became tight and my sweet girls lovingly said, “There she goes again… Mommy’s going to cry.” We all started laughing and as I was wiping away my tears and getting ready to speak, my sweet husband quietly spoke and said, “Sarah is thankful for the wind as it blows through the trees, a leaf that falls in her path, a bird that soars past our kitchen window, a caterpillar she finds in the backyard… she is thankful for everything.”

Sweet Lord, I love the little reminders You place in our paths. My sweet love truly sees me more than I realize and in that moment I felt so deeply understood and loved. Oh my Lord… I am so blessed that he is mine, I am his and we are Yours!

Thank You, thank You, thank You… in every moment and in everything – Thank You sweet Jesus!

God’s Art

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Sarah Bernadac

In the last few years I have begun to develop an appreciation and love for visual art. I was walking through a museum a few years ago when a light bulb suddenly went off in my head as I realized what billions before me already knew… each painting represented a moment in the life of a soul. That day I saw that some had shared a moment of their pain, others had shared a moment of their joy, some shared a moment of their fear, and at least one had shared a moment of deep understanding, a moment when that soul dove into the infinity of their present moment and then translated it onto a canvas.

I cried that day as I walked through the museum feeling humbled and amazed by so many souls laid bare before me.

Tonight as I was reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, he wrote about God’s art throughout creation and interestingly enough I read about this a few weeks ago in Romans during a bible study. Oh Lord please forgive my inability to quickly grasp what You are trying to tell me… tonight I think Your message finally broke through.

God has bared His soul before us… and oh how AMAZING it is!!!

What more is there to say other than – Thank You, thank You, thank You for the Grace to truly see Your Art, Your Heart, Your Soul!

You are welcome

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Sarah Bernadac

Isn’t it interesting that in english the correct response to Thank you is You are welcome? You are gladly received or willingly permitted, admitted, accepted. Where did this originate? Perhaps a language expert could enlighten us on the true historical details of where this response originated from, but what if we let our imaginations roam for a bit?

Perhaps long ago there was a person or a group of people who truly passed on every Thank you they received to God knowing that anything they had done to deserve the gift of gratitude was from God, so in turn their response to Thank you changed from It was nothing or No problem and became You are welcome as an inspired message from God to communicate with others and let them know that they too were welcome in His Kingdom.

As I stretch my imagination to make this up tonight, I hope that my own responses to Thank you in the future will move away from the personally accepting phrases of No problem, It was nothing, and sure, to His inspired message of You are welcome with a prayer that I am nothing more than an instrument of communication.

We are no Longer Separated…

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Sarah Bernadac

I was talking with my daughter today, and we started talking about Jesus. As we were talking about why He had to die on the cross she answered the question with ease and simplicity by saying, “If He didn’t die on the cross, we wouldn’t have God, because we would still be separated from Him.”

We don’t take our children to church, we don’t send them to bible studies or Sunday school, and despite our failures, He speaks with our children loud and clear and WOW do they listen… I am awe of how He has opened their ears, their eyes and given them such a deep understanding greatly surpassing mine.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You sweet Lord… there is nothing else to say but Thank You!

Words, words, words

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Sarah Bernadac

I tell you, on the day of judgement people will give account for every careless word they speak.
– Matthew 12:36

Yikes… does this make anyone else nervous? I read this verse today with more attention than ever before, and I thought to myself, “After every other word out of my mouth should be “forgive me”, “I am sorry”, or “thank You”.”

Please pray for me, at the moment I am spiraling down a tunnel of annoyance at almost everything and my patient husband has to listen to a long list of things that annoyed me throughout the day most nights (I am pretty sure that I am annoying him). This is not my usual state of mind, I don’t like it, and I am sure I have spoken many careless, thoughtless, and inconsiderate words while stuck in the muck of my annoyance.

Thank You sweet Lord, thank you sweet friends and please forgive me.

Forgiven!

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Sarah Bernadac

A father will always forgive a son!

This is why Jesus had to literally bear our sins for each sin to be forgiven. His Father forgave each and every sin only when they became His. If we try to seek forgiveness from the Father without Jesus, the sin remains ours. If we offer it to Jesus, Jesus will accept it as His and the sin will be forgiven by Jesus’ Father because Jesus is His Son and a father will always forgive a son!

Maybe this is why we can only come to the Father through Jesus, through the loving relationship of a father for a son!

He is the way!

Thank You Jesus!

Tonight as He bleeds…

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Sarah Bernadac

On this night our Lord will pray in the garden of Gethsemane, suffering in agony as He prays to the point of sweating blood.

What was flashing through His mind in those moments? What caused Him such great emotional pain that He physically sweat blood?

Maybe as He knelt there praying, life flashed before His eyes, but instead of seeing His own life, He saw all of our lives flash before His eyes. Our lives became His as He lived each of our lives in His mind, in those moments. He saw every sin each of us has ever committed as His own sin.

He watched Himself committing these grievous, selfish, terrible and sinful acts. God, His Father, watched Him committing these grievous, selfish, terrible, and sinful acts.

He literally, physically, emotionally, and mentally bore our sins, and yes, I believe watching Himself commit our sins made Him sweat blood.

He Himself bore our sins… – Peter 2:24

Oh my Jesus… please forgive us, thank You, please forgive us, thank You, please forgive us, thank You, thank You, thank You…

In a flash…

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Sarah Bernadac

I know Christmas is coming and we are preparing to celebrate His birth, but over the last few weeks all of my thoughts have been of Him in the garden of Gethsemane, suffering in agony to the point of sweating blood.

What was flashing through His mind in those moments? What could cause such great emotional pain that it transferred into physically sweating blood?

Maybe as He knelt there praying He had a moment of life flashing before His eyes. Instead of seeing His own life, He saw all of our lives flash before His eyes as His life. As He lived each of our lives in His mind, He saw every sin each of us has ever committed, but instead of seeing us He saw Himself committing these grievous, selfish, terrible acts.