"Deeper"
Real Change for Real Sinners
by Dane Ortlund
Preparing Your Heart: Breathing
Previous chapters have explored overarching spiritual realities: who Jesus really is, our union with him, God's love, justification, honesty, and pain. But how do we actually access and experience these realities in our daily lives? What are the practical means through which we grow?
In this chapter, Ortlund introduces a simple but profound metaphor for the Christian life: breathing. Reading the Bible is inhaling. Praying is exhaling. These twin practices are not just activities we add to our spiritual checklist, but the very rhythm by which we receive and respond to God's grace.
Many Christians approach Bible reading and prayer with a sense of duty or obligation. We know we "should" do these things, but they often feel more burdensome than life-giving. This chapter invites us to reconsider these practices not primarily as tasks to complete but as the essential rhythm of spiritual breathing.
As you prepare to read, consider your current approach to Bible reading and prayer. Do you view them as duties to fulfill or as vital activities that sustain your spiritual life? Are they occasional add-ons to your day or the foundational practices that shape everything else? This chapter may help you move from "ought to" to "get to" in your approach to these basic Christian disciplines.
Before You Read
- What has been your experience with Bible reading and prayer? What makes these practices sometimes feel difficult or burdensome?
- In what ways might your approach to Scripture reading and prayer need to be refreshed or renewed?
Breathing: Bible Reading and Prayer
This chapter addresses the practical tools by which we access and experience the transformative truths explored in previous chapters. Bible reading and prayer are the vital rhythm of the Christian life.
Our Greatest Earthly Treasure
The Bible is our greatest earthly treasure. It is not an ancillary benefit for a life otherwise well ordered, but the very oxygen that sustains our souls. Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17).
The Bible reconstructs our thinking, dismantling our wrong assumptions and rebuilding truth in their place. And it also oxygenates us, filling us with the life, wisdom, and presence of God himself.
A Book of Good News
Many of us approach the Bible as suffocating rather than oxygenating. We see it as a collection of demands and obligations. But the Bible is fundamentally good news, not a pep talk. It is reporting on what God has done, not merely instructing us on what we must do.
We should read the Bible asking not mainly whom to imitate and how to live but what it shows us about a God who loves to save and about sinners who need saving.
Prayer as Exhaling
Prayer is our response to God's word. It is speaking to a real person with whom we have an actual relationship. To pray is to acknowledge that God is not an impersonal force or an abstract ideal, but a Father who loves to hear from his children.
We are encouraged to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), moving through our days in moment-by-moment communion with God, not just in segmented prayer times.
Discussion Questions
- How does viewing Bible reading as "inhaling" and prayer as "exhaling" change your understanding of these practices?
- What are some common but wrong ways you have approached Bible reading in the past?
- How might seeing the Bible primarily as "good news" rather than instruction transform your experience of reading it?
- What makes prayer feel difficult or burdensome at times?
- What would "praying without ceasing" look like in your daily life?
Application
This week, commit to a sustainable rhythm of spiritual breathing. Start with just 10-15 minutes each day. Read a short passage of Scripture (perhaps from Psalms or the Gospels), asking not "What should I do?" but "What does this show me about God and his love?" Then respond in prayer, not with a formal list but with honest conversation. Note how this practice affects your spiritual vitality throughout the day.