“For the Spirit of God has made me,
    and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” – Job 33:4

Question for the day:  “How often do we let the breath of God minister to us?”

Friends,

We talk a great deal about listening for the voice of God, hearing what He has to say to us.  But how often do we stop, and truly let HIs presence surround us?  If you google “breath God”  you will find many circumstances in the Bible describing the life-giving power that comes from the breath of God.

How do we do that?  There are all kinds of ways to experience the physical presence of God, but one that I have found very helpful is the breath prayer.

A breath prayer is a very simple prayer form that takes 3-5 seconds to perform; the amount of time it takes you to inhale deeply and exhale.  The point of the breath prayer is to give us opportunity to “breathe in” the presence of God, and to “breathe out” those things that are detrimental to us (like stress, fear, anxiety, anger, etc.)

Here is how it works:

1.  Choose your favorite name for God

2.  Choose a passage of scripture that speaks life to you

3.  Form a 1 sentence prayer from the two.

Example:

Inhale, “Heavenly Father”

Exhale, “grant me your peace.”

or

Inhale, “Good Shepherd”

Exhale, “in you I trust.”

The possibilities are endless, however, I have truly experienced the grace and presence of God through breath prayers at different times in my life.  The one that took me through the hardest days (also known as the toddler years) is probably my favorite:

“Dear God, help me!”

You may laugh, but that prayer helped me make it through many times of desolation and depression.  And every time I said it, God showed up.  So if you really need to know today that God is in your corner, consider a breath prayer.  Put a name on the need you have, and breathe in deeply the presence and grace of our Savior.  And as an added benefit, since we inhale and exhale all day, we could remain in a continuous cycle of prayer through all our hard times.

Lord Jesus,

Show me the way