Distracted While Praying? Try this.
Give me 3 minutes and I'll help you focus during prayer.
If you're like me, it can be hard to focus when you're praying. I can't tell you how many times I've started to pray, but then I quickly get distracted. I think of people that I need to reach out to, tasks I need to complete, soon my prayer has gone down a rabbit hole and I am thinking about what I'm going to have for lunch tomorrow. It feels like I've completely lost track of my prayer.
If this is something that happens to you then I want you to know you're not alone. This is something that I struggle with as well. These last few weeks, I have been trying something new that has really helped me focus during prayer. Today I want to share this practice with you.
Quieting Your Mind
Distractions, especially in our world today, are all over the place. Sometimes we can’t avoid them, and other times God works through them. However, quietness is very important to our prayer life. This is something that Jesus demonstrated throughout His life on earth. Scripture tells us that Jesus took intentional time out of His busy ministry to find quiet places away from other people and to pray.
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
Matthew 14:13
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Mark 1:35
But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Luke 5:16
If Jesus, who lived the most important human life and was fully God, could take time to be quiet and pray, then we should prioritize these things as well. Quieting our minds is especially important today. If you're like me, it feels like your life is packed full: busy schedules, social media and phones eating up your free time, responsibilities and a never ending list of things you need to do. For me, it feels like my brain is almost always operating at 100% capacity.
Why It’s Hard to Focus When Praying
If you are wrestling with frequent mental distractions while praying, it likely means your brain has not had a chance to slow down and catch up with the busyness of your life. The moment that you actually come to God in prayer, and your brains slow down for a minute, you get this rush of thoughts that come to your head. All of these unprocessed thoughts end up completely derailing your prayer. This is a scenario that has played out in my prayer life frequently. Today I want to share with you something that has helped me slow down and quiet those distracting thoughts, and be able to focus more during my prayer time.
How To Slow Your Mind Before Prayer
What you need to get started:
A quiet place
Pen
Paper
Once you have found a quiet place to pray, have your pen and paper near by. Then, sit and try to be quiet.
If you’re like me, as soon as your brain gets quiet, thoughts will immediately start rushing to your head. When this happens, take a second, slow down, and write down those thoughts on the paper. Then, go back to quieting your mind.
I have found this practice of writing down distracting thoughts extremely helpful. Oftentimes I really don’t want to forget the thoughts that come into my head. Writing down these thoughts not only preserves them, but the act of writing them out by hand helps the thought to leave your mind. Later, you can look back at your list, so you are free to let your brain go back to being quiet.
It often takes me several minutes of writing thoughts down before my brain actually starts to become quiet. This process may be shorter for you, or it may take even longer. I have found it depends on the day and what is going on in my life. However, after giving yourself the time you need, your brain will be able to slow down and it will become easier to quiet your thoughts. This practice has been very helpful for my prayer life, and I hope that it is helpful for you as well.
Pray Through Your List
One additional benefit to writing down distracting thoughts before praying, is that the list of thoughts you write down will contain important things for you to pray about. If these thoughts are occupying your brain, it means they hold some level of importance to you. Bring these thoughts, concerns, or desires to God.