The other day I was talking with Kevin, one of our ministry partners. He and his wife have two small children, he leads the marketing department for a company, and he volunteers in his church. He’s a busy guy!
In our conversation, he was telling me how much our “Breath Prayer Guides” have helped him. He exclaimed, “These little breathing prayers are so powerful! You can take them with you as you go through your day. You can live in them and practice God’s presence. They get into your body and bring great peace — and power to live for Christ!” Easy Yoke has helped him experience steady healing from anxiety, fear, control, and worry. It’s helped his soul to breathe in sync with the Holy Spirit.
He’s so excited about Your Best Life In Jesus’ Easy Yoke because he wants to use it to help people in his church understand how they can grow in God’s grace and peace and actually make progress in becoming more like Jesus!
Do you know how to breathe a phrase or paraphrase of Scripture in and out? Have you experienced greater peace in Christ from doing this?
I do breathing prayers every day because they keep me happily connected to Christ and they help me serve him more effectively. This is an ancient Christian practice that goes back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 3rd Century.
It’s a way of breathing with Parakletos, the Spirit of Jesus. (The words for spirit and breath are the same in the Bible.)
One of my favorite Breath Prayers that I developed helps us to foster our identity in Christ. It is inspired by Psalm 62:1, 5 (NIV84): “My soul finds rest in God alone… Selah… Find rest, O my soul, in God alone… Selah.”
Breathe in slow and deep as you whisper or think: “In Christ alone my soul finds rest…” Then breathe out: “Selah.”
In Your Best Life In Jesus’ Easy Yoke, I teach this prayer and nine other delightful breathing prayers to further our apprenticeship to Christ. Also, I show you how to practice Selah, which is a word that’s used 71 times in the Psalms to help us slow down our thoughts and really pray from our hearts. The Psalmist seems to use Selah and other phrases like “Your love endures forever” to help us enjoy and rely on God’s presence in the moment.
I explain how you can use this little prayer of the heart to abide in each of the Bible’s five fruitful, virtuous states of being: “faith”, “hope”, “love”, “joy”, and “peace.”
What a blessing it is to go to Christ to cultivate healthy emotional makeup! These five godly states of being have positive, pleasant, and energizing emotions associated with them!
More Breath Prayers
To pray a short verse or paraphrase of Scripture as a Breath Prayer is refreshing and empowering. It helps you learn to practice God’s presence all day and stay in tune with the peace of Christ. I’ve selected key verses of Scripture and developed step-by-step instructions for meditation, breathing rhythms, and prayer in “Breath Prayer Guides.”
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Listen to this week’s SoulTalk: In this episode, Bill and Kristi teach you how to integrate this practice in your daily life, so that you can walk with Jesus in his easy yoke.
