Six Ways to Deal with Prayer Distractions

“How do you deal with prayer distractions?”

What a great question to get from your daughter!

My husband laughed. “When do I not get prayer distractions?”

I nodded. “It’s a frequent problem.”

Commiserating is not the same thing as answering a question, so I thought about it a little more and here it is:

Six Ways to Deal with Prayer Distractions

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1. Recognize prayer distractions are likely to occur.

Minimize the distractions you can before you start.

*If you know your schedule will make you uneasy because you have somewhere to be at a given time, set a timer (watch, phone, kitchen stove) for when you need to be done.

*If you’re in a time crunch and really need to get some chores done first, get things started–like the laundry and the dishwasher

* Turn off the telephone

*Get a blanket/sweater/socks

*Bring a glass of water with you

*Choose a better time

2. Ask God to help you stay focused.

Hey, you’re praying anyway, why not ask God to help you stay on task?

He’s just as interested in what you have to say as you are!

3. Work through a list and picture exactly who or what you’re praying about

*If I’ve agreed to pray for someone about something, it helps to picture them and their situation as I pray. This focuses me more and often opens the door to more effective praying.

It also reminds me that I’m not praying in a vacuum–someone needed me to pray and since, as Oswald Chambers reminds us, “prayer is the more important work,”  I can take the task more seriously.

4. Read Scripture

On days I cannot keep prayer distractions at bay, I resort to reading Scripture out loud.

I’ll start with a psalm or two, speaking them into air and listening to what I’m saying.

Since the psalms are songs, or prayers to God, they can help me.

If I’m praying about a specific need, I can find the pertinent Bible passage and substitute my name in the appropriate place, thus enabling my soul to take my petition to God and allow my ears to agree–sort of a two-fer, though I’m the same person.

5. Write down the distraction and return to prayer

I’ve been doing this for years.

Fine, even though I’m praying about something else, this little thank you note I need to write is insisting it needs to be done RIGHT. NOW.

That’s not true, I’m praying, but if I find a piece of paper and write it down, I’m more likely to get to it in due time.

Or, I ask God to remind me to do it at a better time (this prayer is usually prayed in the middle of the night when I don’t want to get out of bed).

6. Follow the distractions and pray about them

Sometimes the prayer distraction will not go away, no matter what I do (see above). I take that to mean the Holy Spirit may be at work and thus I pray about the distraction.

“Okay, Lord, I know the birds are noisy this morning and they have nothing to do with what I’m praying about, but let me take a moment to thank you I can hear.

“Thank you for giving birds songs to enchant and to praise you with.  I’m grateful to be in a quiet enough place to hear them, and don’t have to worry about my safety or their’s.

“Thank you they have water to drink and food. Thank you for the good things birds bring to my life.”

And so on.

If you pray like this long enough, the distraction becomes a cause of thankfulness.

Prayer distractions will always be with us. They’re part of a busy life and a spirituality that Satan doesn’t like.

Remember the adage? If Satan can’t tempt you to sin, he’ll make you busy. Often, it’s that busyness that acts against our ability to sit, listen, open our hearts and to pray.

What sort of prayer distractions do you deal with?

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