My Prayer Distractions

As is usually my custom, I rose early this morning, made some coffee, read a couple chapters in my Bible, and then went for a walk so as to spend some alone time with the Lord in prayer. My expectations of communing with the Lord were as big as my intentions but once I got out the door on this beautiful cool morning my heart became more of a marketplace than a place of prayer. I saw the backyard that needed to be cleaned up, which caused me to realize I needed to get gas for the chain saw so I could cut some firewood (go figure on how that connection came about). Then I began to realize I ought to order some gravel for the driveway and just about the time I got into the “Good Morning Lord” part of my praying it dawned on me that I needed to send out the announcements, finish the message for Sunday as well as make about ten phone calls today. Talk about distractions.

Well the good news is, I put all this behind me and did have some time in prayer but oh what a battle it was to keep my mind clear so as to talk with the Lord rather than myself. And in all honesty, a mile or two down the road, as I started to pray for and through the church I found myself struggling again with such distractions as our church’s finances, relational issues, personal needs and struggles I have been made aware of in our church family, and a variety of other interesting and not so interesting things to think about.

Finally, I finished my circuit and as I walked back in the door to sit down and write this I wondered about the value of my quote unquote “prayer walk”. As I considered whether I should just go right back out there and do it again only this time with a much more serious approach to dealing with all my distractions, it dawned on me that distractions are life. And since life is what we pray about—distractions may not really be distractions at all—they may be prayer requests in disguise. In fact, perhaps they are the very things God wants to talk about.

I’ve never found that talking to my wife was any more intimate and pleasurable because I came to her with a list and an agenda. Most of the time, what passes for good conversation between us is talking about all the distractions that interrupted our agenda and made scrap paper out of our lists. Well, after giving it some more thought I think prayer without distractions may not be prayer at all. Paul told us that we are to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) and that we are to be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving we are to let our requests be known to God (Phil. 4:6). How can we pray without ceasing and over everything and not include our distractions?

So, I didn’t go back out on the road to repray my prayers. I simply thanked the Lord for listening to me as I talked to Him and for listening in on me as I talked to myself. Then I committed all my distractions to Him.