Sounds good, doesn’t it? Amazing actually. But maybe a bit too much like a slogan rather than the real thing. But if you are skeptical, hold that thought for a minute or two. I think I can demonstrate how you really can make prayer your breath and breath your prayer.

When I say prayer, I don’t mean only traditional acts of prayer such as reciting the Lord’s Prayer or the kind of prayer you might hear in church or even at the dinner table. Instead, I mean an awareness of God and a communion with Him at that moment in time.

It could be what we traditionally mean by prayer, but it could be much more. The voicing of direct thoughts from you to God. Thinking about God and the many blessings you’ve received. Maybe it’s a deep session of reading and considering a Psalm such as Psalm 23. So, by prayer, I mean communion with God, praying, thinking, singing Christian songs, reading the Bible deeply and thoroughly.

Take a breath…

I have it on good authority that you are breathing right now. And I suspect you had not given it a thought until I mentioned breath.

That’s because we breathe naturally and habitually. Can we do this for prayer? That is, can we make prayer an integral part of our everyday life?

We may not ever get to the point where it is automatic like breathing, but we can move in that direction. To start, we have to pay attention to breathing and prayer. So just ask yourself this:

can I make prayer my breath?

I’ve been connecting breath and prayer for a while now and it works…some of the time. Like you, I can get distracted and caught up in the world so that my breathing becomes unconscious and my prayer non-existent. However, now that I’m connecting prayer and breathing, I pray more frequently and I breathe better too.

I’m not talking about repeating a short prayer like a mantra or some kind of magical incantation. Instead, I’m suggesting that we can draw near to God. We can be closer to him through prayer and through making prayer an important part of our lives. The breath of life comes from God, so by using that turning to him as we breathe, we connect with him more deeply.

Here is a beautiful passage from the Bible that expresses this thought:

Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

From passages like the one above from Philippians, I understood the concept of taking our requests to God in prayer.

Later I started making the connection between praying and breathing after I read a short passage from the late evangelist and Christian author, Oswald Chambers:

The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops.

Oswald chambers, my utmost for his highest (may 26)

The first gulp of air felt mighty good

My wife and I went to the beach a while back. Because we live in Hawaii, you might think we go to the beach all the time, but we don’t. Anyway, at one point I dove under the water and swam as long as I could. When I surfaced, that first gulp of air felt mighty good.

I’m not at the level where my prayers work just like breathing. I can still go for hours without praying. Yet that first moment of prayer after a few hours feels mighty good. It’s not quite the same as air, but still good.

My goal is to make my prayer more natural. It goes something like this. Breathe…think of God…Breathe…be grateful for that breath…Breathe…get distracted by a weird thought…Breathe…get back to God…Breathe…seek closeness with Him…Breathe…get distracted by a bird…Breathe…pray for more of the Holy Spirit…Breathe…

Earlier I asked that you to hold your skepticism for a minute or two. I won’t try to persuade you to link prayer and breath, but I hope you do. What do you think?

Yours in Christ, Kurt

See Taking Off