Ancient Spiritual
Disciplines:
The Jesus Prayer
(Breath Prayer)
What do you pray and when you just don’t
know what to pray? And how could anyone come close to Paul’s challenge in 1st
Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing” ? The ancient Christians who went
out into the deserts to focus on God struggled with this and in their meditation
upon scripture were haunted by two verses:
Luke 18:39: “Son of David, have mercy on me” and
Luke 18:13 “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
From scripture they wove a prayer that applies to every human heart in every situation, and developed a spiritual discipline called the “Jesus Prayer” or the “prayer of the heart.” Here is how to do it wherever you are, whatever is going on:
.jpg)
As you
breath in slowly pray:
“Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God…”
As you
breath out slowly pray:
“… have mercy on me,
a sinner”
Repeat this prayer a number of times as you feel led, focusing not so much on the words as on the One you are praying to – who is present with you, even now.
Rote repetition of written prayers cannot earn us favor with God and can smack of dead ritual. But earnest calling out to God again and again from your heart using words of Scripture is a good thing, and God invites it. In Psalm 50:15 God says “Call upon Me in the day of trouble” And Psalm 51:17 says “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”