Breath prayers are an ancient practice that combines deep breathing with meditation on Scripture and active prayer. Just as the spirituality of breath connects our physicality to our spirituality, breath prayers can be a holistic spiritual discipline that calms the body while focusing and immersing the mind in God’s truth.
Recently, I was in an Uber heading to an airport for a business trip when I heard some seriously bad business news. My accountant called and told me our firm owed a lot more in taxes than I expected. This was right after we’d made some hiring decisions and committed to some other expenses that I thought were wise, but now all of our cash cushion would be wiped out.
To make things worse, this occurred right in the middle of a period when I had been confessing to my wife and close friends that financial stress was becoming my main worry. This had never happened to me before, but I was seriously wrestling with my ability to trust God in finances.
This anxiety was primarily manifesting physically, by the way, in an irritability with my children, an inability to focus at work, and also lots of tossing and turning in bed at night while I rehashed decisions I had made. I might not have been able to put it into words, but my fear was that the welfare of my family and my firm was all up to me, and if I didn’t make exactly the right decisions, I might seriously mess things up for people I loved.
After hanging up with my accountant, partly out of fear of a panic attack coming on and partly because I felt the sin of not trusting God coming on, I put my phone down and made a commitment to myself: I would use the rest of this Uber ride not to mindlessly scroll or come up with solutions but just to do box breathing and say a breath prayer.
So while my driver followed the interstate for ten minutes or so to the airport, I began box breathing through a prayer from Psalm 23.
- On the inhalation, I said to myself, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Then I held my breath for a few seconds. And as I exhaled, I said, “I shall not want.”
I use a lot of breath prayers, but Psalm 23 is one of my favorites, for a lot of reasons. Just as I need oxygen, I need a shepherd. As I inhale, I acknowledge in word and body that need. Just as I need to get rid of carbon dioxide, I need to rid myself of disordered wants, such as wanting financial security more than I want God, which is the root of “trusting in money.” As I exhale, I acknowledge that need.
After about six or seven minutes, a few things happened. First, I realized that by having something to do, my primary response to stress had become prayer. That’s not a small thing for me. I’m not immune to having a shrinking attention span. That time of prayer was a small miracle and a gracious gift from the Spirit of God, who sustained me in my moment of need.
Second, I got out of the car feeling physically fantastic. I had a rush of calm that made me just stand and enjoy the common- grace warmth of the sun that shines on the stressed and the unstressed (though only one notices).1
Finally, as I stood on the sidewalk outside the airport, something welled up in me, and I (almost involuntarily) just said to myself, “So I’m out a lot of money, but God will take care of me.” I said it quietly, but audibly. I wondered what the people around me might have thought. But I was more engrossed in marveling at what I said, because I was pretty sure I meant it.
I went on to work the rest of the day with an unusual focus and peace, and then I called my accountant and we began to make some plans.
I write this because it is so uncharacteristic of me. News headlines regularly ruin my day. Bad emails regularly ruin my week. I am, and I suspect you are, a fragile human being who often gets scared about his self-worth and the security of the future. And being a human being, these spiritual fears manifest physically. I shake. I feel nauseated. I can’t sleep.
Breathing is the difference between something and someone.
Until I began to realize that the body teaches the soul, I spent so many of these times in confusion. I look back at a lot of life and think, “I didn’t know what to do with myself.” I didn’t know how to handle my body to cope with bad news. Unsurprisingly, that meant the stress often lingered and came out in the form of self-doubt, anger at people I love (who had no idea what I was mad about), and the various unhealthy coping mechanisms that I struggled with at the time.
Dallas Willard wrote that grace is opposed to earning, not effort.2 Every practice I will recommend in this book is offered in that spirit of the disciplines, to respond to God’s grace in body and spirit. That’s important to remember, because God’s grace alone is the cause of our salvation. But that same grace also sparks our cooperation in sanctification.3
Breathing is not a “simple solution to sin.” Only Jesus is. Huff and puff all you want and you won’t breathe your way to righteousness. Like all practices we’ll talk about in this book, breathing doesn’t change God’s love for you. But maybe God’s love for you should change the way you breathe.
Some Breath Prayers to Try
When you are stressed: Psalm 23:1 (KJV): (inhale) The Lord is my shepherd; (exhale) I shall not want.
When you hear of terrible injustice: Kyrie eleison: (inhale) Lord, have mercy; (exhale) Christ, have mercy.
When you need something to do with your gratitude: (inhale) Whom have I but You? (exhale) Hear the praise of grateful hearts.
From Psalm 73:25 (ESV):
Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You.
When you battle the demons of sadness: (inhale) Take comfort, my soul; (exhale) again I say rejoice.
From Psalm 42:11 (ESV):
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.
And Philippians 4:4 (ESV):
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
When you are about to snap at your child: (inhale) Lord, remind me I am your child; (exhale) you are full of grace and truth toward me.
From John 1:14 (ESV):
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When you are overwhelmed with self-doubt: (inhale) I am God’s beloved; (exhale) with me he is well pleased.
From Matthew 3:17 (ESV):
And behold, a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’
And Romans 8:16 (ESV):
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
When you are tempted as Jesus was: (inhale) I can do all things through Christ; (exhale) God deliver me from evil.
From Philippians 4:13 (ESV):
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
And Matthew 6:13 (ESV):
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
When you are afraid: (inhale) The Lord is my light; (exhale) whom shall I fear?
From Psalm 27:1 (ESV):
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
1. Matthew 5:45: He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
2. “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.” Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (New York: HarperOne, 2006), 61.
3. Ephesians 2:8–10: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Excerpted with permission from The Body Teaches the Soul by Justin Whitmel Earley, copyright Justin Whitmel Earley.
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Your Turn
What do you do when you get seriously bad news? What might change if you practiced breath prayers instead of letting fear and panic cause irritability, an inability to focus, and lots of tossing and turning in bed at night while I rehashing all the details? Because the body teaches the soul, breath prayers can help you respond to God’s grace in body and spirit. Try them today! ~ Devotionals Daily