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When You Can’t Keep Your Mind on Prayer · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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Speak: Kyle Strobel teaches spiritual formation at a
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seminary. He has spent his career studying how people grow
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close to God, and prayer has never come easy for him. He'd
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sit down to pray, and his mind would go somewhere else.
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realized what he'd been doing. He had just outlined an entire
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book. Every time it happened, he'd drag himself back and feel
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like he was bad at the one thing he of all people should have
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been able to do. Kyle finally realized that he wasn't seeing
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the big picture. The distraction he kept fighting was trying to
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show him something. We'll come back to what Kyle saw, but first,
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welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leysier. A
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while back, a medical bill showed up that was more than I
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was ready for. And every time I sat down to pray that there it
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was. I'd start in on something else, and my mind would go right
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back to that number. I kept treating it as interference. I'd
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apologize to God for wandering, and then I would try again. And
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30 seconds later, I was back on the bill. It finally dawned on
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me that my mind was telling me what I needed to pray about.
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That bill was the thing I was worried about, so I just started
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praying about it. You sit down to pray, and your mind is
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already somewhere else. Maybe it's on the grocery list or the
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email you forgot to send. Your prayer time turns into a
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constant stream of task switching. And you come back to
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God, and you apologize. And 20 seconds later, your mind's
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drifted off again. And then the self-blame starts. You figure
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that you can't hold your attention on God for five
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minutes, that says something about how much you want Him.
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David had a request for God about something similar. It's in
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Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. He says, He says,
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Psalm 139 is a psalm about God knowing everything. Verse 1 says,
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So David spends 22 verses on the fact that God already sees all
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of it. Then he turns around and asks God to search him. He is
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requesting something he's just spent the whole psalm saying.
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God does without being asked. Now look at the words he uses in
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verse 23. Know my anxious thoughts. The Hebrew there is
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related to the word for branches. So the picture is a mind
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splitting off in several directions at once. So David
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brought the wandering to God as the request itself. Then look at
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what he asks God to do with those thoughts. Know them. Point
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out what's wrong in them. And lead them somewhere better. He
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hands over the contents of his mind as the materials God's
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going to work with. And then go back to verse 2 one more time.
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Because I believe it settles something there. You know my
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thoughts even when I am far away. God knew where your mind went
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before you noticed it had gone. You aren't telling something He
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doesn't already know when you apologize for it. next 20
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seconds when your mind drifts. Just come and pray about
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whatever took you away. Years later, Kyle and his writing
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partner, John Coe, put it like this. A wandering mind usually
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isn't random. It drifts straight toward whatever your heart's
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chasing. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart
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will be also. So your distractions are probably
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revealing what or where your treasure is. So they stopped
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fighting the drift and started praying it. When the mind runs
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to the latest bill or the old argument that you've had, don't
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shove it away necessarily, but hand it to God right then and
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there. Something like, Father, look at this. Look at what my
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heart does in your presence. The distraction stops being the
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thing that wrecks your prayer time. It becomes a thing you
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pray about. And every time you come back to Him, that coming
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back is the prayer. Did you hear that? Every time you come back
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to Him, that coming back is the prayer. So the person who
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drifted 40 times in 10 minutes, it sounds like me, and came back
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40 times has prayed 40 times. Most of us would have written
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that off as 10 wasted minutes. Here's today's challenge. Pray
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for 10 minutes today and keep something to write with beside
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you. Every time your mind runs off, write down where it went.
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It could be one or two words. That would be enough. And then
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look at that list when you're done. What's on that list is
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where your heart is and what it's worried about or what your
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heart is on. And it's your prayer list for tomorrow. And
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quit apologizing for the coming back after your mind has drifted
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away. come back. Father, David asked you to search him and know
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his anxious thoughts. And he asked it knowing you already
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knew every single one of them. Thank you that when our mind
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wanders off, it doesn't surprise you. For everybody listening who
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has been grading themselves on how long they can hold still and
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keep a conscious prayer life going, let them hear that the
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coming back counts with you. Search us and show us what our
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hearts are on. In Jesus' name, amen. This podcast runs on the
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generosity of listeners just like you. If Daily Devotions for
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Busy Lives has encouraged you, would you consider supporting it
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with a one-time gift or by becoming a monthly supporter?
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Every contribution helps keeps these devotions coming every
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week. You can give at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com
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slash support. Thank you so much. And thanks for joining me on
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Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, David asked God to
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know his anxious thoughts, and God already did. Write down
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where your mind goes this week and pray on that list. Come back
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next time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in
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God's truth. Until then, God bless, and have a great day.