Breath Prayer: The Question
What do you want God to do for you?
Have you ever thought about that? If you could ask God to do something for you, what would it be?
Would you be able to express what your dreams are, what miracles you want to see, what promises of God you are hoping for in your life?
For most of us, we have no idea what we want God to do for us. We believe God is for us, but we have no idea what we want God to do for us.
Here’s the deal, God loves you and wants to bless you. No. He’s not a genie in a bottle waiting to grant your three wishes. But He is God. And He can do anything. Nothing is beyond His power or ability. And like any loving Father, He loves blessing you — His son, His daughter. He takes great delight in hearing and answering your prayers.
The Ask
So what does it mean to pray?
In one simple way, it means thinking about what you want to talk to God about. What do you want to ask Him to do for you?
In Matthew 20:29-34 there’s a story about two blind men. Listen to the question Jesus asks them when they meet.
Here’s a great retelling of this story by author Mark Batterson from his book, “The Circle Maker.”
More than a thousand years after the Jericho miracle, another miracle happened in the exact same place. Jesus is on His way out of Jericho when two blind men hail Him like a taxi: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
The disciples see it as a human interruption. Jesus sees it as a divine appointment. So He stops and responds with a pointed question: “What do you want me to do for you?”
Seriously? Is that question even necessary? Isn’t it obvious what they want? They’re blind. Yet Jesus forced them to define exactly what they wanted from Him. Jesus made them verbalize their desire. He made them spell it out, but it wasn’t because Jesus didn’t know what they wanted; He wanted to make sure they knew what they wanted.
The Breath Prayer
If you were to see Jesus today walking down the street and He came up to you and asked you, “What do you want me to do for you?” What would you say? What would your response be? What do you want God to do for you?
Have you ever thought about that?
If you could ask God to do one thing for you today, what would it be? Would you be able to express what your dreams are, what miracles you want to see, what promises of God you are hoping for in your life?
Think about your answer to that question. What do you want God to do for you? Then turn that answer into a one sentence prayer. We call this a breath prayer.
A breath prayer is a one line simple prayer that you can pray in one breath.
Then, throughout this week, pray that breath prayer over and over and over again.
So it may go something like this for you, “Lord Jesus, give me courage this week.”
Or, “Dear God, help me do what is right today.”
It can be anything you want. Here’s the key… think about what you really want God to do for you. Pray your breath prayer over and over in prayer. Then watch and see how he answers.
Sometimes… he’ll answer your prayer. He’ll change your situation, your circumstance, whatever it is around you that you want to change. But almost always, he’ll change something inside of you. He’ll use your breath prayer to draw you closer to him, to change you from the inside out and make you more like Jesus.
Want more about prayer… Click here.
