Breath. Prayer.
Breath is life.
When was the last time you held your breath? When my wife Kellie was a kid, she played a game with her siblings where they tried to hold their breath whenever they drove over a bridge. A long span made it quite the challenge.
I remember challenging myself as a kid to hold my breath under water, timing myself on a watch and attempting to make it for three minutes. I can’t recall whether I hit that mark or not, but I do remember the burn in my lungs as I neared my limit. My body began to crave its most essential commodity: Air. Oxygen. Breath.
So maybe it should come as no surprise that breath would be a natural point of connection with the divine life generally and with the Holy Spirit specifically. Let’s connect a few biblical dots…
Both the Greek and the Hebrew words for breath also mean spirit.
In this sense, the Holy Spirit could be legitimately considered the breath of God. It’s not by accident that Pentecost was marked by a supernatural wind!
When God created humans, Genesis tells us that he fashioned Adam’s body from the soil…and then breathed his own breath into him. Holy CPR.
Paul wrote to Timothy that “Scripture is God-breathed,” literally inspired. Breathed into.
And in a curious account, the resurrected Jesus enters past locked doors to encourage his disciples. John says that “he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.” Interesting.
So if there is a connection between our natural human breath and the divine life, how might this help us practically?
The contemplative tradition holds that bringing conscious awareness to our breath is an act of spiritual centering, of returning our attention to the presence of God. And oh how we desperately need that! How many times in the space of a day do we experience worry or frustration or insecurity or uncertainty or any number of other emotional hooks? These feelings tempt us to try to meet our legitimate core needs for control, approval, and security in illegitimate ways. Only God can satisfy these needs, but how do we connect with God when we need him most?
Perhaps by breathing.
Sometimes the most emotionally accessible lifeline to the Holy Spirit is to access our own spirit, our own breath. To simply tune in to the life already moving dynamically in and out of our bodies, without any effort on our part. Both the natural breath and the spiritual breath are already with us. Flowing in and out without fail. Inhaling. Exhaling. Just as the Spirit of God abides in us, coursing through us without fail. What a beautiful reality.
Pause right now and pay attention to your breath. Don’t try to change it, just notice what’s happening for a minute or two. Wondrous, isn’t it?
An ancient Christian practice emerged around the sixth century to give expression to this truth; it was called a breath prayer. A word or phrase was repeated as the simplest essence of a prayer, timed to the inhale and exhale of the breath. The earliest recorded breath prayer is the longish phrase, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner” later shortened to “Lord, have mercy.”
This evocative phrase (Kyrie eleison in Greek) so captured the yearning of the Godward heart that it was woven into music both ancient and modern. Listen below for a gorgeous choral rendition…or further below for an unexpected version by the band Mr. Mister in all its 80’s pop rock glory! On opposite musical poles, both carry a heartfelt prayer for meeting God right at the point of our need. Even in a breath.
Maybe you have wondered at, or even dismissed outright, Paul’s ambitious challenge to “pray continually” or “pray without ceasing.” Surely that must be hyperbole! And yet, the idea that we might learn to pray within our very breaths, both consciously and even unconsciously, brings us closer to that reality than we ever dreamed!
I love tuning my imagination to the picture of the very Breath that first filled Adam’s lungs now filling mine, infusing my soul with divine provision, securing my identity, whispering blessing, pouring out an endless offering of mental guidance, emotional stability, physical strength, and spiritual connection. May we never take our most common act—breathing—for granted again.
ThriveTip
Take a couple minutes now to create your own breath prayer. Choose a word or short phrase that echoes the current yearning of your heart. Practice breathing that prayer, allowing the words to be carried gently on the currents of air flowing in and out of your body. Perhaps write your prayer down and post it at your desk or in your car where it can invite you into that instant connection between your spirit and God’s. Prayer has never been so easy…or so profound.
Takeaway
God’s breath flows in your lungs.