Stilling a Busy Mind
Have you ever felt like your mind isn’t cooperating with your heart when you’re trying to pray? I am particularly prone to distraction during my prayer time, and it can be a struggle to keep my mind focused on my conversation with God. This has been an area of struggle for a while, but there are a couple things I’ve learned from Scripture that have helped me considerably.
The first thing that helps me is 1 Corinthians 10:5:
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
I have a very active imagination, and when I’m praying, it tries to take my thoughts as far as possible down a road of “what-ifs” and conversations that might happen, or anticipatory imaginations of how the events of the day will go.
When I realize this is happening, I ask God to help me cast down my imagination, to take my thoughts captive. –And you know what? It works! Sometimes I have to do this multiple times during my time with God in a given morning, but it does help me get back on track and focus, and as I'm careful to do that, my imagination runs away with me less and less.
Sometimes it’s not just my imagination, though. When there’s a situation bothering me or a pressing issue weighing on me, I need to stop and yield those things to God before I can get my mind focused on praying about other things. Proverbs 16:3 says,
“Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.”
When I am submitted to God, acknowledging His right to allow any circumstance He deems best in my life, it is much easier to keep from getting bogged down with analyzing and stressing over things beyond my control. What I need to do instead is to give those things to the Lord, because they were never meant for me to carry: they have been in His hands all along! It’s amazing how much easier it is to focus when my “works” are committed to God.
Once I have surrendered all my distractions to the Lord, I can then truly do as God is calling me to:
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)