I’ve personally and deeply known Jenn Tucker as one of my dearest friends for the last 8 years & she is nothing if not a genuine woman of the Word. A woman who trusts that God is trustworthy, that He communicates, and a life of intimately communicating with Him, and daily listening to Him, leads to a life of deeply fulfilling communion, even, especially, in crisis. And as two very close friends who can testify to this truth, two mothers, two daughters of the King of kings, Jenn and I have long walked together through some achingly dark nights of the soul, standing with each other, kneeling with each other, grieving with each other, breathing prayers with each other, for each other, and the hard things become holy things as we bring them to Him. It’s one of my greatest joys to welcome Jenn to the farm’s table today…
It was nearly 2:00 AM in the middle of a dark February night last year when they wheeled my daughter from the emergency room to her inpatient room on the fourth floor of a children’s hospital in Atlanta, two hours from our home. Outside the small window, city lights poked holes against the black veil of night and cast shadows on the wall above her bed.
A too-big hospital gown fell loosely over her tired body, and wires strung from her chest to the monitors beside her bed, blinking with the rhythm of her heart as I held her hand and she drifted off to sleep.
A hard vinyl couch beside the wall was my bed as a nurse sat with us in the room, monitoring her through the night.
She looked so small and frail in that hospital bed. My heart physically ached in my chest as I thought of the long and deeply difficult journey that had led us to that point and that room there that night.
She was far sicker than I realized when I drove her to the hospital that day, and the reality of it all had left me overwhelmed and unsteady.
“I felt small and scared and so very alone.
I tried to pray, but my mind was only filled with worry and fear.”
As I laid there in the darkness of that hospital room, my eyes quickly welled up with an overflow of pain and helplessness.
The familiar signs of anxiety began to flood through my body. My chest grew tight and heavy, and my hands began to tremble as I struggled to catch my breath.
I felt small and scared and so very alone.
I tried to pray, but my mind was only filled with worry and fear.
The previous two years of unanswered prayers and pleas to God had drained me of all my words and I could feel myself unraveling.
I had nothing left to say, nothing left to pray.
“Breath prayers combine deep breathing with prayers of meditation on God’s Word to help ease anxiety while turning your mind to Truth.”
As I grasped for hope and gasped for breath, I remembered a simple prayer that I had learned about a few months earlier: breath prayer. Breath prayers combine deep breathing with prayers of meditation on God’s Word to help ease anxiety while turning your mind to Truth. Made of just a couple of lines from Scripture, they’re prayed to the rhythm of inhales and exhales. I was captivated by their simplicity when I had first learned about them, so I wrote a few down and tucked them in my heart.
And now, months later, the words of one of those prayers suddenly came to my mind.
Just a handful of words from Psalm 23, broken into two small lines:
“The Lord is my Shepherd;
I have all that I need.”
I took a deep breath, and as I inhaled, I tried to focus my mind on the words, “The Lord is my shepherd,” and as I exhaled, I whispered, “I have all that I need.”
And again, breathing in deeply, I focused my thoughts on “The Lord is my shepherd,” and then breathed out “I have all that I need.”
As I focused on my breathing and the words of Scripture, my body calmed and my soul was reminded of a truth that will never change, no matter my circumstances:
“The Lord is my shepherd”—even here in this hospital, next to my daughter hooked up to monitors, and the road ahead completely uncertain.
And “I have all that I need”—because even here, in the dark, I have Him. The good shepherd. The one who tenderly guides us and holds us when we’re wounded and weary, the One who keeps watch over us through the night. He is all that I need.
That simple prayer helped quiet my worries and fears. The deep breathing helped to calm the physical symptoms of my anxiety, and the prayer helped me to center my thoughts on Christ and His presence with me and His love for me, and I drifted off to sleep with a renewed peace.
“Breath prayers gave me words to pray when I had no words to pray, when all I had to offer was my trembling breath.”
There in that hospital room, breath prayers gave me words to pray when I had no words to pray, when all I had to offer was my trembling breath. They became a lifeline to me throughout that hospital stay, as I walked the halls breathing and praying, praying and breathing through all the hard days. And I’ve continued to practice breath prayers ever since, to help ease my anxiety while also strengthening my faith.
These simple prayers, rooted in God’s Word, have become such a comfort to me, not only in times of anxiety, but throughout so many of my days, strengthening both my body and soul by helping me tuck important truths in my heart and paving paths of peace in my mind.
Breath prayer brings us back to the bare basics.
Stripped of everything else, it’s just our breath and God’s Word.
We inhale His peace and exhale our anxiety.
We inhale His truth and exhale our worry.
We inhale His grace and exhale our shame.
We inhale His presence and exhale our fear.
“When anxiety is gripping tight and words are hard to find, God’s Word gives us the words we need.”
When anxiety is gripping tight and words are hard to find, God’s Word gives us the words we need.
When we’re afraid or overwhelmed and it’s hard to catch our breath, we can breathe deep and know that God is with us—He gives us our breath and He will give us everything we need for whatever we are facing.
Because no matter how dark or difficult or devastating the path is that you are walking, no matter how tight the hold anxiety has on you or how overwhelming your feelings may be, nothing changes the truth of God’s Word.
No matter what happens —
Your afflictions can’t stop His affection.
Your problems can’t stop His promises.
Your failures can’t stop His faithfulness.
Your questions can’t stop His compassion.
Your pain can’t stop His plan.
Your mess can’t stop His mercy.
“You can take a deep breath today and let your worries fade into His loving arms. He’s got you.”
And absolutely NOTHING—nothing you say, nothing you do, nothing you feel, nothing in heaven or on earth, not even life or death—no hospital room or graveside, no diagnosis or crisis or loss—can separate you from His love.
No matter what happens, you are safe and held and fully and completely loved.
You can take a deep breath today and let your worries fade into His loving arms. He’s got you.
The Lord is our Shepherd.
We already have all that we need.
This post includes material from the book BREATH AS PRAYER: CALM YOUR ANXIETY, FOCUS YOUR MIND, AND RENEW YOUR SOUL by Jennifer Tucker, copyright © 2022 by Jennifer Tucker, published on September 13, 2022 by Thomas Nelson, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.
Find hope amid anxiety through the spiritual practice of breath prayer in this beautifully illustrated and practical guide. Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul will lead you through the practice and the proven health benefits of Christian breath prayer: purposeful prayers centered around Scripture that focus your mind on Christ as you calm your body through intentional breathing.
In this profoundly personal prayer journey Jenn invites all the weary on is one bore out of her own deep valleys, and she is an uncommonly kind guide and wise companion, breathing prayers with you every step of the long way through.
[ Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotion. ]
