How many times has this happened? You feel scattered and distracted. You try to pray but nothing changes. You’ve entered overloaded, anxiety-provoking, crazy-making territory. It’s not surprising. When you’re anxious, your brain doesn’t know (or care) if you’re in real danger or not. It will still prioritize detecting threats over clear thinking, which leads to brain fog and the inability to concentrate. Everything not related to the immediate problem crashes and burns. Like focused prayer. But God is good, and there is a way. You can stay calm and centered and open to God’s leading even in the middle of the fire. It works just as surely as breathing because…

If you want to pray but struggle to slow your mind and feel God’s presence, here’s a very old prayer that will help: Christian breath prayer. By praying Scripture in a single breath, prayer becomes less about striving and more about resting in God. These are breath prayers: words from Scripture that fit into the space of a single breath. They are not verbal because you’re breathing while you’re praying. You pray the first short phrase while inhaling and finish the second phrase while exhaling. That’s it. Breath prayers do not replace the prayers that Jesus taught. You go right on praising God, confessing your sins, petitioning for yourself, interceding for others,…