Episode #77 Psalm 23:1 God Your Shepherd- Breath Prayer

Hi friends. Today we are continuing in our series on breath prayer. And while I am far from an expert at this, I did give some explanation about what breath prayer is and how we can use it and some of the inspiration behind it in the very last episode. And for the next few episodes, we're going to be exploring Psalm 23 as breath prayer.

We're not going to be going through every single verse of the Psalm, but we will be highlighting. specific parts of it and utilizing those passages of scripture as forms of breath prayer. To have an inhale and an exhale as we think about God's word, as we fill our mind with it and we focus on it and we turn those verses, God's already and current communication to us from the Bible, into something that we repeat back to Him.

Scripture tells us the word of God is living and active. That means it's not just God's past communication with us. It's His present communication with us. And we can turn that into conversation with Him.

I can read and affirm, God, I believe what you're saying in this passage. Will you show me what this looks like for me? I can read and encourage my own spirit. Look at what God is saying to you. Look at what He says. His word does not return void.

And Psalm 23 is a really great passage of scripture to practice that because the psalm in and of itself slows us down and it puts us in a posture of considering and receiving from the Lord as our shepherd.

And so our passage for today is really just focusing on Psalm 23:1

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

And while I read from the ESV version, the breath prayer for today is actually using NLT wording.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need."

Think about that for a minute. The Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. There are so many circumstances in my life where I can see in hindsight how that was true, but I also remember walking through that particular leg of the journey, it was difficult to perceive it.

There's a quote from Dallas Willard and it says, "The Lord is my shepherd, that is relationship. I shall not want, that is provision."

We can come to God as our shepherd and not just our collective shepherd as his followers, but as our personal shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I know him and he knows me.

I have all that I need because he is my shepherd. He cares for me. He provides for me.

As we close out this episode I'll repeat our breath prayer, and I encourage you, give yourself a few minutes to slow down. To sit in a chair and pay attention to your breathing.

To allow your breath to slow down, not because there's something spiritual in slower breathing, but to allow yourself a deeper inhale and a fuller exhale. Give yourself space and breath to pray. Maybe for you, that's all you need today, in this moment, this connection with God is simply repeating the prayers. Giving yourself a few minutes of breathing and of receiving his word over you, of considering his word and affirming that you receive this word as a sheep back to your shepherd.

Or maybe for you, this will spark more questions. Maybe as you sit with this prayer, you'll find questions about how this is true, or what this could look like, or recognize ways that this is a struggle for you. And after the exercise, you can continue that conversation with God with those new questions and insights.

Whatever this looks like for you, use these few minutes to engage with God in prayer. I'm sitting down as I'm recording this. My feet are planted on the ground. And I'm just going to breathe.

And as I breathe, and I pay attention to an inhale, and an exhale. I also pay attention to the way that I'm connecting with God.

And so here's our breath prayer.

Inhale: The Lord is my shepherd.
Exhale: I have all that I need.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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