Breath Prayer on Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday, a perfect day to revisit Christian breath prayer.

The prayer is simple: choose a verse from the Bible. Silently repeat it in two phrases while breathing deeply. Breathe in, the first phrase. Breathe out, the second.

The classic breath prayer dates from the ancient church. Today we call it the Jesus Prayer: “Jesus Son of God / have mercy on me, a sinner.”

You can turn anything God shows you into a breath prayer.

This is NOT an affirmation or a deep breathing exercise. This is praying God’s Word back to Him.

This morning, I was re-reading a passage He showed me the other day. At the time I was flipping through the Bible on my way to the New Testament, but He brought my attention to the Old. The passage is Is. 43:18-19 and starts with, “Forget the former things…”

This morning, He drew my attention back to the passage, specifically to the 2nd half of verse 19. He told me to pray the words He spoke to Isaiah in my breath prayer, and I did:

[breathe in] “I am making a way in the wilderness / [breathe out] and streams in the wasteland.” Repeat…

Now you try it.

What life, what power in the Word!