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distractions during prayer.
Family, how do I deal with distractions during prayer?
When I pray, I sometimes loose focus and my mind would run in 7 different directions...
When I pray, I sometimes loose focus and my mind would run in 7 different directions...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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It can be difficult for me to talk to God, too, and I think, as one prays, one should talk a little while and then listen because I believe God speaks to us through His Word and through His Spirit. I go to His Word when I'm having trouble praying.
The Lord's Prayer serves as a model for praying. I pray it when I'm having trouble finding my own words because I think it really covers everything that is well within God's will for us on a daily basis.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
I pray it (not recite it) when I have trouble finding my own words. There's a difference.
There are many prayers in Scripture which we can "pray through" from our hearts, which is very different from reciting words from rote memorization. Psalms has beautiful passages.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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Since it's been awhile, I figure you've been missing this...
Gotta disagree. LOL
Especially as a single parent. If you are praying and have a screaming child, you WILL be distracted. I've had to pray my way through distractions at church many times. I've found that closing my eyes to listen to the message or focus on God helps to remove distractions.
I don't take the same meaning from Scripture you gave. Serving two masters is referring to worshipping the way of one...we can worship God's goodness or worship evil. Distraction isn't serving or worshipping other God's.
I once went up for prayer for pain. With the pain I was in, I was determined to remain standing and pray through regardless. Service ended. I was finally hearing the sounds of the praise team leaders with their kids getting ready to leave. Other than them, myself and my son, the church was empty and I had stood praying through it all. And the pain was gone.
And it came back with a vengeance from standing so long the next day.
That's focusing out every distraction, but it's not always doable. Sometimes we can't focus away the pain no matter how we try.
How about if you pray at work and the boss comes with a project to do now? Do you tell them wait till you finish praying? Do you say nothing because it would distract you? If you do the job, are you worshipping your boss/job? If you favor prayer over the request are you worshipping God by disobeying His command to work as if working for God and to obey those in authority over us?
I know I know...extremes, but I think it shows we can't call a distraction worship. ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Nicki Morero on
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Hey Amanda, I tried your suggestion and it worked, not only for the distractions. See I've recently made a habit of waking up in between 12am - 3am and today I woke up late (4:40) and I was just so lazy to get out of bed, so I just said the Lord's prayer and it prompted me to get out of bed and pray. As I prayed I got distracted thinking about my day before, what a friend said to me, what to wear to church and etc, so I said the Lord's prayer a couple of times and surely enough I was able to get back on track.
God abundantly bless you Amanda.
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Thanks, Nicki. I don't see that distraction and sincerity have the same meaning :) One can be sincerely distracted.
However, there are reasons why one is easily distracted and has difficulty concentrating. IMO, everyone has trouble in this area at least sometimes. At times just too much information is running through the mind. Then, there's a whole lot going on, on the outside, too, all around us.
Mary gave some good suggestions.
In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus mentions going into a room and shutting the door, and Luke 5:16 says, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." NIV
Eliminating outward distractions is a place to start but preparing the heart is important, too.
There's a blog here on AAG by Christine entitled, Setting the table of our hearts, that I really like.
http://www.allaboutgod.net/profiles/blogs/setting-the-table-of-our-...
Praise and repentance are part of preparing our hearts as we come to the throne of grace, asking for help in our time of need. Otherwise we might not come so boldly, if our conscience isn't clear.
I think God knows we need help when we pray. Jesus intercedes for us. Holy Spirit prays for us.
(Romans 8:26, 8:34; Hebrews 7:25)
Thank You, LORD.
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Permalink Reply by Mary O on
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I like what you said about the praise and repentance are part of preparing our hearts as we come to the throne of grace and asking for help in our time of need. Otherwise we might not come so boldly if our conscience isn't clear.
I've worn earplugs before. Anyone else have noisy neighbors or critters? The area we live in gets noisy. A little humor, we had this pear tree over in Brook. Pk., and the birds liked meeting there early in the morning. If you want to sit at the table and open the patio door and catch a little fresh air while you read Bible and pray, you also catch the birds singing. How many birds? All of them, I think. Life happens.
Love,
Mary
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That sounds like the dawn chorus. Yes, I think it would be a huge distraction and definitely not a time of solitude. :)
As I was just sharing with a friend, I have gone through times of prayerlessness, too, on top of dealing with distraction. I realize that the times I've stopped talking to God are times when I've thought I'm on my own anyway, that He isn't listening or interested in helping me.
That's one of the things that a recent devotional that I read addressed. The woman in it, Annie, said that she started to wonder, “Is God good even when he’s not doing things that I would define as good?”
I've thought of God's promises to us and I've wondered why He mentions them in the Bible but then withholds them from me. But then there are things that I try to withhold from God even though I know God knows and sees all but what I mean is, there are things I keep instead of surrendering to Him.
In the devotional, Annie shared that she experienced a shift in her thinking and changed from feeling as if she had to have from God what she felt she wanted God to give her (which was to be a mother) to believing that she can be satisfied in God even without a child. I think that's my struggle mostly. Her struggle was based on infertility. My struggle differs and has different roots, but I'm not satisfied in God and think I can't be unless He does this or that for me, etc.
The devotional was called Chloe and here's a link to it www.movingworks.org
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Gill's Exposition of Mark 11:24 says:
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Therefore I say unto you,.... For encouragement in prayer more particularly, without which nothing should be attempted, and especially which is above the power of nature, and is of a miraculous kind:
whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray; that is, according to the revealed will of God, is for the confirmation of his Gospel, and for the glory of his name:
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them; the petitions that are desired, and the things asked in them: that is, be as much assured of having them, as if you had already received them, and you shall have them; for the sense can never be, that they should believe they received them before they had them; this would be a contradiction in terms; and Beza's ancient copy, and one of Stephens's copies read it, "believe that ye shall receive", as in Matthew 21:22, and so the Vulgate Latin version; with which agree the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, which render it, "believe that ye shall enjoy", or "obtain"; and the Syriac version, "believe that ye are about to receive"; and great faith it is so to believe; and this is the prayer of faith; see 1 John 5:14.
http://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/mark/11.htm
But I'm talking about just being satisfied in God alone and not in any promises or anything I will receive from God, if I ask and believe, and I'm not talking about having faith and being assured that I'm going to have what I ask as if I'd already received it, as Gill explains it. I've heard people say they are satisfied in God even if God never does another thing for them. Maybe that's where God wants us to be.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on
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Thanks for the link Amanda. It gave a homepage of the site. Is there a specific page I can go to or do I need to join the site to read that specific devotion?
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I found the devotional on YouVersion bible app. There, the devotional is called Suffering and God's Love and it's a video devotional. The video is from the film called Chloe. At the link I shared, in the other comment, if you scroll down you will see the video entitled Chloe. At least that's how it is for me when I click the on the link using my iPhone. The video is part of the devotional. You watch it and then read the content and scripture references. Here's another link, too, though that hopefully will work. I truly liked the devotional.
https://www.movingworks.org/project/chloe/
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Growing up, my mama would hang something on the bedroom door. When that thing was on the door, you know there was a meeting with God & you left her alone.
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Thank you Amanda, I will check it out :)
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