A reader recently asked me about the practice of praying with your breath and the Jesus Prayer, both of which I recommend and write about in the free ebook every email subscriber gets, and my new Prayer Retreat in Your Pocket ebook. She was concerned that they might be too much like eastern meditation practices.

I normally like to tackle these kinds of questions in the Q&A section of our email, (you did know we often have a Q&A section, right?) but as we spoke I realized that this question deserved “above-the-fold” treatment. So here are my thoughts, and, I’d love to respond to your question. Simply send me an email at brandon@signpostinn.org.

All religions pray and meditate. “Prayer” simply means talking to or worshiping something and “meditation” means sustaining attention on something. The key difference in Christian prayer and meditation is the object of our worship, conversation, and attention. Christians do not worship ourselves or pray to the universe, we talk to and focus our attention on the only true God: Jesus as he is revealed in the Bible.

It’s important to note that practices like breathing slowly and intentionally to calm my body, or repeating a few words as prayer, or sitting quietly to slow the rushing thoughts in my head, are not uniquely “Eastern” or “New Age.” God’s people in both the Old and New Testament have long done these things without being influenced by pagan religions. We can see many hints and even direct recommendations of such practices in scripture, for example: Psalm 131, Psalm 62, Psalm 116:7, Lamentations 2:22-27, Isaiah 26:3, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:2, to name a few.

A similar point is made by Dr. John Kleinig, a biblical scholar with an extremely high view of scripture, in his excellent book Grace Upon Grace. There is nothing special or weird about “meditating” in his view. It is simply a kind of “relaxed concentration” or “receptive state” that we all naturally slip into when, for example, we are reading a book, or watching a show, or enjoying nature. According to Kleinig, when Christians “meditate” we simply dwell on God’s word and presence, so that it affects us. We stop acting as thinkers and doers and vacate the stage for God to become the center of our awareness. We let God become the “center of our world” (pg 92). If you’d like to hear more from Dr. Kleinig I encourage you to listen to my interview with him.

So what about breath prayer and the Jesus prayer specifically? Well, when I talk about “breath prayers” all I mean is slowing down my breathing and engaging my body in the words I’m saying or the attention I’m giving to Jesus. It’s like saying to someone who has rushed into church all in a tizzy: “It’s okay, slow down, breathe, you’re safe now!”

Learning to breathe slowly and intentionally as I pray “calms and quiets” my body and soul just like the author of Psalm 131 is doing or like the author of Psalm 116:7 encourages himself to do. It brings my body—my heart—into the prayer along with my mind.

And the so-called “Jesus Prayer” is nothing more than a very old version of the Kyrie that liturgical Christians have been praying in church for millenia. Both prayers are taken directly from Jesus’ parable of Publican and the Pharisee where the publican prayed earnestly: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” So, praying the Jesus Prayer repeatedly is like repeating a memorized bible verse. It’s a way of filling my mind with God's truth as Paul instructs in Philippians 4:8. And that is a powerful antidote to all the anxious and negative thoughts my mind will naturally ruminate on if left unchecked.

So, I encourage people to use the Jesus Prayer as a way of talking to Jesus a lot, I also encourage people to engage their hearts and bodies with the prayer. Not to repeat it mindlessly as if it’s a mantra, but to attend to what you are saying with your heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37).