I was a pastor and regarded by some as a paragon of prayer.  Truth is, I am easily distracted, especially when I pray.  I suspect that I have Attention Deficit Disorder but when I was a kid it wasn’t a thing. 

But I do remember that each year in school, my new teacher would seat me at the head of the row nearest to her desk.  Gee and I thought it was because I was so likeable.

I am bothered that my prayers are distracted.  I feel like I am missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime.  I think of Jesus words in John 14:13, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  I bet that set their heads to spinning.    “Whatever – as in anything?”  They could hardly believe it, which is why Jesus immediately repeated Himself in verse 14, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

These privileges are extended to us as His disciples.  But alas, the other day I was praying, but then I thought about how often I get distracted when I pray – and it occurred to me that right then I was distracted from prayer by thoughts on distraction from prayer.  Hopeless!

Sometimes, I imagine my prayers going something like this, “Lord?” “Yes my child!”  “My car won’t start.  Would You help me with….hey was that a Tesla?” “What?”  “Oh, I’m sorry, as I was saying, my car is in the shop – shop – You better shop around.”  “What?”  Oh right – well my car needs help.”  “That’s not all that needs help.” 

Over the years, however, I have learned a couple of things to help me manage my distractions.  Jesus taught me to…

– Pray aloud.   

That is what He did.  John 17 contains Jesus concluding prayer at the last supper.  It is an entire chapter long – nearly 700 words and every word was recorded by John because John heard Jesus pray aloud. 

Jesus prayed aloud at the cross (Luke 23:24); at Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39); and at the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:41) and when He multiplied the fishes and loaves (John 11:41-42).

         And it appears that it was the custom for all back then.  In Luke 18:13 we read, “The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’”  It was audible and recorded for us.  There are other instances of verbalized prayer found at Acts 8:15, 16:25, and 20:36.

         OK so why out loud?  When our intangible thoughts are silently slithering through our minds, its takes almost nothing to disrupt them, but when speaking our prayers out loud, we hear what our hearts breathe, and we focus.  Because we hear them, God gets to hear them too. 

But didn’t Jesus warn us against being publicly pious?  He did!  According to the King James we are to go into the closet when we pray (Matthew 6:6).  

OK my closet smells so I may skip that.  But His point was to seek a private place and pray there.  Which brings me to a second Jesus lesson…

– Pray alone

Mark 1:35 says, “Then Jesus got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there He spent time in prayer.”

Jesus chose a place without people – “a deserted place” – a place where it was exclusively Him and His Father. He chose a time of day when He would be the least distracted – in the morning before rush hour. He also chose to do it while it was still, “very dark.”  Darkness hides the visual things that distract us.

It seems that even Jesus worked to eliminate distractions from His prayer. So do what you must do, to be done with distractions – and pray!

Speaking of prayer, this is mine.  “Lord, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Help me.” 

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Scripture passages are from the NETBible.com