When You Can’t Keep Your Mind on Prayer
Key Takeaways
- A wandering mind during prayer is often not random, but rather a reflection of what your heart is chasing or what you are deeply worried about, as seminary professor Kyle Strobel discovered.
- Instead of treating distractions as interference to apologize for, you can use them as direct material for your prayers.
- Psalm 139 shows that David brought his wandering, anxious thoughts directly to God as a request for Him to search and know.
- God already knows where your mind goes before you even notice it has drifted, meaning you aren't informing Him of anything new when you apologize for losing focus.
- Every time your mind drifts and you purposefully return to God, that act of coming back counts as a genuine prayer.
- A helpful practical exercise is to pray for ten minutes with a notepad nearby, writing down where your mind wanders to understand what is truly on your heart.
Prayer time becomes task-switching with your eyes closed. Learn why David asked God to search him after twenty-two verses saying God already had.
You sit down to pray and your mind is already somewhere else. The grocery list, or the email you forgot to send. Prayer time turns into task-switching with your eyes closed. You come back and apologize, and twenty seconds later you've drifted off again. Then the grading starts. You figure that if you can't hold your attention on God for five minutes, that says something about how much you want Him.
This episode opens with Kyle Strobel, who teaches spiritual formation at a seminary and has spent his career studying how people grow close to God. Prayer has never come easy for him. One time he sat down to pray, and when he came out of it he realized he had just outlined an entire book.
Psalm 139:23-24 gives you David's request for exactly this situation: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." Start with where that request falls in the psalm. Psalm 139 is the one about God knowing everything. Verse 1 says You have examined my heart and know everything about me. Verse 2 says You know my thoughts even when I am far away.
So David spends twenty-two verses on the fact that God already sees all of it. Then he turns around and asks God to search him, requesting something he just spent the whole psalm saying God does without being asked.
Now look at the words in verse 23. Know my anxious thoughts. The Hebrew there is related to the word for branches, so the picture is a mind splitting off in several directions at once. David had language for the wandering, and he brought the wandering to God as the request itself.
Then look at what he asks God to do with those thoughts. Know them. Point out what's wrong in them, and lead him somewhere better. He hands over the contents of his mind as the material God is going to work with. And verse 2 settles something that changes how you pray. God knew where your mind went before you noticed it had gone, so you aren't informing Him when you apologize for it.
Bart shares his own version of it, a week when a medical bill kept pulling his mind off prayer until he understood the bill was the thing to pray about.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:
Why David asks God to search him after twenty-two verses saying God already has What the Hebrew behind "anxious thoughts" pictures about a wandering mind What to do with the next twenty seconds of drift, and why the coming back counts
Here's the practical step. Pray for ten minutes today with something to write on beside you. Every time your mind runs off, write down where it went in a word or two. Then look at that list when you're done. What's on the list is what your heart is on, and that's your prayer list for tomorrow. Quit apologizing for the coming back, and just come back.
The person who drifted forty times in ten minutes and came back forty times has prayed forty times. Most of us would have written that off as ten wasted minutes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do when my mind wanders during prayer?
Instead of feeling guilty or constantly apologizing, turn your distractions into the subject of your prayer. Hand whatever pulled your attention away directly over to God.
Who is Kyle Strobel in relation to prayer and spiritual formation?
Kyle Strobel teaches spiritual formation at a seminary and has spent his career studying how people grow close to God. He openly shares that prayer has never come easy for him and that his own wandering mind helped reveal how distractions can guide our prayers.
What does Psalm 139 teach us about a wandering mind?
Psalm 139 features David asking God to search his anxious thoughts and know his heart, providing a biblical model for bringing our fragmented, branch-like thoughts directly to God.
How can I use a notepad to improve my prayer life?
Try praying for ten minutes with a pen and paper beside you, jotting down a word or two every time your mind runs off. At the end of the time, review the list to see what your heart is truly focused on or worried about.
Kyle Strobel teaches spiritual formation at a
Speak:seminary. He has spent his career studying how people grow
Speak:close to God, and prayer has never come easy for him. He'd
Speak:sit down to pray, and his mind would go somewhere else.
Speak:realized what he'd been doing. He had just outlined an entire
Speak:book. Every time it happened, he'd drag himself back and feel
Speak:like he was bad at the one thing he of all people should have
Speak:been able to do. Kyle finally realized that he wasn't seeing
Speak:the big picture. The distraction he kept fighting was trying to
Speak:show him something. We'll come back to what Kyle saw, but first,
Speak:welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leysier. A
Speak:while back, a medical bill showed up that was more than I
Speak:was ready for. And every time I sat down to pray that there it
Speak:was. I'd start in on something else, and my mind would go right
Speak:back to that number. I kept treating it as interference. I'd
Speak:apologize to God for wandering, and then I would try again. And
Speak:30 seconds later, I was back on the bill. It finally dawned on
Speak:me that my mind was telling me what I needed to pray about.
Speak:That bill was the thing I was worried about, so I just started
Speak:praying about it. You sit down to pray, and your mind is
Speak:already somewhere else. Maybe it's on the grocery list or the
Speak:email you forgot to send. Your prayer time turns into a
Speak:constant stream of task switching. And you come back to
Speak:God, and you apologize. And 20 seconds later, your mind's
Speak:drifted off again. And then the self-blame starts. You figure
Speak:that you can't hold your attention on God for five
Speak:minutes, that says something about how much you want Him.
Speak:David had a request for God about something similar. It's in
Speak:Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. He says, He says,
Speak:Psalm 139 is a psalm about God knowing everything. Verse 1 says,
Speak:So David spends 22 verses on the fact that God already sees all
Speak:of it. Then he turns around and asks God to search him. He is
Speak:requesting something he's just spent the whole psalm saying.
Speak:God does without being asked. Now look at the words he uses in
Speak:verse 23. Know my anxious thoughts. The Hebrew there is
Speak:related to the word for branches. So the picture is a mind
Speak:splitting off in several directions at once. So David
Speak:brought the wandering to God as the request itself. Then look at
Speak:what he asks God to do with those thoughts. Know them. Point
Speak:out what's wrong in them. And lead them somewhere better. He
Speak:hands over the contents of his mind as the materials God's
Speak:going to work with. And then go back to verse 2 one more time.
Speak:Because I believe it settles something there. You know my
Speak:thoughts even when I am far away. God knew where your mind went
Speak:before you noticed it had gone. You aren't telling something He
Speak:doesn't already know when you apologize for it. next 20
Speak:seconds when your mind drifts. Just come and pray about
Speak:whatever took you away. Years later, Kyle and his writing
Speak:partner, John Coe, put it like this. A wandering mind usually
Speak:isn't random. It drifts straight toward whatever your heart's
Speak:chasing. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart
Speak:will be also. So your distractions are probably
Speak:revealing what or where your treasure is. So they stopped
Speak:fighting the drift and started praying it. When the mind runs
Speak:to the latest bill or the old argument that you've had, don't
Speak:shove it away necessarily, but hand it to God right then and
Speak:there. Something like, Father, look at this. Look at what my
Speak:heart does in your presence. The distraction stops being the
Speak:thing that wrecks your prayer time. It becomes a thing you
Speak:pray about. And every time you come back to Him, that coming
Speak:back is the prayer. Did you hear that? Every time you come back
Speak:to Him, that coming back is the prayer. So the person who
Speak:drifted 40 times in 10 minutes, it sounds like me, and came back
Speak:40 times has prayed 40 times. Most of us would have written
Speak:that off as 10 wasted minutes. Here's today's challenge. Pray
Speak:for 10 minutes today and keep something to write with beside
Speak:you. Every time your mind runs off, write down where it went.
Speak:It could be one or two words. That would be enough. And then
Speak:look at that list when you're done. What's on that list is
Speak:where your heart is and what it's worried about or what your
Speak:heart is on. And it's your prayer list for tomorrow. And
Speak:quit apologizing for the coming back after your mind has drifted
Speak:away. come back. Father, David asked you to search him and know
Speak:his anxious thoughts. And he asked it knowing you already
Speak:knew every single one of them. Thank you that when our mind
Speak:wanders off, it doesn't surprise you. For everybody listening who
Speak:has been grading themselves on how long they can hold still and
Speak:keep a conscious prayer life going, let them hear that the
Speak:coming back counts with you. Search us and show us what our
Speak:hearts are on. In Jesus' name, amen. This podcast runs on the
Speak:generosity of listeners just like you. If Daily Devotions for
Speak:Busy Lives has encouraged you, would you consider supporting it
Speak:with a one-time gift or by becoming a monthly supporter?
Speak:Every contribution helps keeps these devotions coming every
Speak:week. You can give at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com
Speak:slash support. Thank you so much. And thanks for joining me on
Speak:Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, David asked God to
Speak:know his anxious thoughts, and God already did. Write down
Speak:where your mind goes this week and pray on that list. Come back
Speak:next time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in
Speak:God's truth. Until then, God bless, and have a great day.
