How to Overcome Distraction in Prayer - 3 POWERFUL Keys

if prayer is to be effective it must be focused the wandering mind keeps the believer bound to the natural realm the excess of distracting thoughts is too heavy to allow for heavenly ascension now you'll notice that when you go to pray one of the assaults that the enemy uses is distraction have you ever noticed that you go throughout your day without a distracting thought and then all of a sudden when you go to pray when you finally say i'm going to commit this moment now to the lord that i might focus on him that i might seek his face in prayer that suddenly all of these thoughts begin to bombard your mind distractions the cares of this world responsibilities relationship issues questions and doubts and concerns thoughts just begin to wander through your mind and it can be very difficult to grab hold of those thoughts and pull them in under subjection to the spirit and what begins to happen is as you're trying to pray you become so distracted not just even by the thoughts themselves but you become distracted at the battle against those thoughts so there's almost two layers to it the thoughts themselves are distracting bombarding your mind and then we get distracted by another layer of distraction we become frustrated that we have to fight those thoughts in the first place and we begin to feel guilty or ashamed or we feel condemned or we feel like we're not doing a good job because these thoughts are being thrown into our minds we deal with worries we deal with doubts all of these thoughts i call inner chaos and they clutter the mind now it's interesting because we say things like well all day i was perfectly fine but it wasn't until i went to pray that suddenly all of these thoughts showed up well that inner chaos my friend didn't show up when you started to pray that inner chaos was revealed when you started to pray you just were never quiet enough to hear what was going on inside of you well no wonder we're walking around feeling lowly no wonder we're walking around filled with fear no wonder we feel so distracted spiritually we have inner chaos with us and we don't even recognize it because we're never still or quiet enough to hear what's going on inside of us so again it's not that that distraction it's not that that inner chaos suddenly appears when we start to pray rather it's that that inner chaos is suddenly revealed when we begin to pray now how do you focus the mind because it's one thing to point out a problem distraction worry doubt but it's another thing to present a solution so if you've ever dealt with that when you go to pray just this bombardment of a series of thoughts that just distracts you and keeps you from focusing on the things of god while you pray i'm gonna give you keys to overcoming that problem with focus number one the first key to overcoming distraction number one is silence matthew 6 6 says but when you pray go away by yourself shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private then your father who sees everything will reward you jesus here in matthew 6 6 is speaking of private prayer prayer that's secluded prayer that's secret only those who actually believe in prayer pray privately why because if i don't believe in the power of prayer then why am i going to pray in private when there's no one around to impress so you see it's when you go to those secluded places that you're proving you believe in prayer those who believe in prayer actually pray and so it is doubt that keeps us from going to the secret place and we may not even realize that it's doubt and so that silence that we find in the secret place actually cultivates an atmosphere in which we can more clearly hear the lord you see prayer and focus on prayer doesn't cause god to speak it causes us to recognize and hear more clearly so if we are to focus in prayer if we are to overcome these distracting thoughts then we number one need silence now silence is a very practical thing i set the atmosphere i shut the door i seclude myself i turn off the cell phone i turn off the television i communicate with my loved ones that i'm not to be disturbed for that moment of prayer and you carve out a section of your day in which you say this belongs to god this is god's portion now of course you can pray 24 7 all throughout the day and that's one form of prayer but what i'm talking about here is that very intentional form of prayer where you carve out a section of your day you carve out a place that you can bring forth silence in and in that moment in that atmosphere you're praying without distraction now silence is good because silence gets rid of all the distractions around you but silence doesn't get rid of the distractions within you you see silence will help you get rid of outer distractions but only stillness can quiet the inner distractions but without silence in the first place you would never know what was going on inside of you think about the fact that we live such fast-paced distracted lives that we hardly have a moment of pause in which we can consider all that we're thinking of have you ever really gone to a quiet place put aside distractions and just listened to your own thoughts think about how we constantly put distractions before us we're constantly before screens we're constantly communicating we're constantly consuming media and data and information and music and interactions we are constantly stimulating the mind with all sorts of things around us this is why when all of it goes silent we can become uncomfortable because of the things going on within us so silence will put away outer distractions but silence can only reveal inner distraction it can't get rid of them so silence can get rid of maybe a conversation that would distract you from prayer conversation silence can get rid of what you're looking at on social media how you're constantly checking your phone now you're constantly checking the computer how you're constantly looking for something to stimulate your mind externally silence can put that away but only stillness can quiet the inner man you see silence that turns my phone off but how do i turn my thoughts off how do i turn those distractions off how do i turn worry off how can i turn off doubt how can i turn off cynicism how can i turn off shame and all of these things that prevent us from entering the secret place of prayer well in order to focus we must number one practice silence and this is a practical but effective means of bringing focus to our prayer lives that is to intentionally set the atmosphere so that distractions from the exterior realm do not affect us now these next two keys that i'm going to give you in regards to focus have to do with quieting those inner thoughts that inner chaos of the mind so first is silence number two the prayer request philippians chapter 4 i'm going to read verses 6 and 7 don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need and thank him for all he has done then you will experience god's peace which exceeds anything we can understand his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in christ jesus now this is a powerful key but it's often overlooked you know in the church sometimes we embrace superstitious cliches that sound spiritual but aren't actually biblical one such example is this cliche that you should never ask god for anything don't ask god just thank him don't ask god that shows you're not grateful stop always asking god to do for you and give to you but do you realize that your heavenly father wants to bless you your heavenly father wants to provide for you your heavenly father wants to give to you and that's why he's given us the prayer request so the bible says let's break it down now don't worry about anything instead pray about everything do you realize that worry is a useless attempt at control worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer i want to say that again worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer your spirit prays your flesh worries your spirit gives it to god through prayer your flesh tries to control the situation through worry and some of us confuse worry for prayer we think that because we're thinking about it obsessing over it that we're therefore praying about it but that's not the case the flesh worrying is an illusion of control the flesh whirring is an illusion of productivity jesus said who can add any more height to his stature just by worrying in other words he's saying it's futile it's useless it doesn't actually produce anything worry just works you up it doesn't actually cause anything to happen but our human nature says to us that if i can think about this enough if i can obsess over this enough maybe somehow some way by thinking about it i can either a keep myself from being caught off guard or be prevented altogether and that's the illusion of worry is we have this strong sense of control but worry is just a lack of trust prayer is a demonstration of faith in god and so worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer and the bible says don't worry about anything there's nothing that should cause you to worry instead pray about everything now watch this great exchange here tell god what you need that's the request and thank him for what he has done that's giving him praise for what he's done i request god please provide god please work a miracle god i'm asking for your intervention well at the same time i'm praising him for what he's already done so we see in scripture that it is actually quite possible to be thankful for what god has done while also asking him for more so we have to get rid of that cliche that that superstition oh don't ask god for anything don't don't ask god to perform for he's already done enough no no our father is generous our father is giving which one of us who are parents wouldn't want to keep giving to our children we don't say i i give you food and shelter and clothing that's all you need i don't want to give you anything else no as parents we want to give good gifts we want to not only provide for needs but also in some cases not in every case in some cases we also want to provide for their wants and our heavenly father is the same way it's the giving nature of the parent and so our heavenly father wants to give wants to pour out blessing wants to give us favor in our lives but we must practice gratitude so don't worry about anything instead pray about everything pray about that job you want pray about the rent that's due pray for the healing of that sickness pray for the wayward child pray for the battle in your mind pray about everything give it to jesus and thank him for all he has done watch this now this is so powerful this is the key portion of the scripture remember i'm giving you a key to silencing that inner chatter that inner chaos the inner distractions of the mind and emotion then you will experience god's peace wow when will i experience god's peace after i've had a prayer request after i've made my request then i will experience god's peace which exceeds anything we can understand prayer is like climbing a mountain remember god told moses come up to the top of the mountain and the bible says that as moses ascended to the mountaintop he disappeared in the cloud that's what happens to us god invites us to the top of the mountain and as we ascend the heights of prayer we disappear in the cloud or in the holy spirit we cease to be now prayer is like climbing that mountain and some of us tried to climb that mountain carrying a backpack over our shoulders and we carry these burdens with us and we try to climb that mountain with the distractions and the weights of responsibility holding us down pressing us into the dirt crippling our prayer lives we can't have any movement and if we do have movement it's very little because we are so weighted by the cares and distractions of this world and we're trying to ascend the heights of god's glory while carrying the weight of the world it cannot be done and so as i'm climbing the mountain and i have this weight on me this bag on me of all the things that have piled up in my life what i actually do when i make a prayer request is i remove the bag from my shoulder and i put it in the lord's hands and then i'm free now here's the mistake many believers make and this is actually where that cliche comes from don't ask god for anything this is where the cliche comes from because many believers will pray they'll unburden themselves they'll take the bag off their shoulder and they'll give the bag to jesus through means of the prayer request and then here's what happens we remove the bag we say okay lord now you take it the lord takes the bag and then we say okay lord i'll see you later and then we go back to the valley we go back down the mountain now wait a minute god lifted those burdens not so that we could stop climbing god lifted those burdens so that we could continue to climb unhindered so some of us come to the lord we say lord i'm carrying this i'm carrying this weight here's my distractions you give them your distractions he takes them from you and then we say thanks lord i feel so much better we feel that lifting of the burden in prayer and then we say thank you lord goodbye and we leave not realizing that god removed the burden not just so that we could go back to everyday life not so that we could go back to the valley god didn't remove that burden so that you could go back down to the valley god removed that burden so that you might continue to climb to higher heights on the mountain and so peace is not the conclusion of prayer that's the problem with some of us we pray until we have peace we give them our burdens we remove the distractions and then ah i feel so good my heart is filled with peace wonderful thank you jesus okay lord i'll see you later no no no no no peace is not the conclusion of prayer it's the entry way so we remove those distractions from our mind by the means of prayer requests and then once those distractions have been removed now we can climb to the top of the mountain the problem is some of us once we've had that burden lifted we go right back down and this is not the way that the lord intended us to approach prayer so when you unburden yourself by means of the prayer request you're actually coming to the place where you're focused now your focus can be on jesus and not on the responsibilities not on the cares not on the worries not on the doubts but on him and the way you focus is to silence the prayer request and number three worship isaiah 26 3 says something so powerful the bible says thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee that's a promise that's a promise from the word of god that if my mind is focused on him he'll keep me in perfect peace thou keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed focused steadfast given to the attention of on thee so when we look to jesus and we keep our minds on him everything else fades into the background worship is the key to still the mind and the soul so amen do the practical first silence the room silence the atmosphere set aside all outer distractions but then you must unburden yourself with the prayer request let the peace of god fill your heart and then begin to worship you see we praise god for what he does but we worship him for who he is so when i've found that quiet place and when i've gone to this secret place and i put aside the television i turned off the phone i've told my loved ones to leave me for that time when i've carved out that section of my day then i can make my prayer requests when i make my prayer requests i give god my burdens he fills me with his peace oh my goodness now i'm focused amen i can worship him i'm leaving behind the cares of this world and even as you worship some of those burdens that maybe weren't completely lifted when you were making your prayer request because sometimes we give god the bag but hold on to some of the things that we were carrying in the bag worship just liberates you and worship is not about us but it does affect us worship just liberates you from the cares of this world because you are so captured your attention your mind so fascinated by his being who he is that now i see the light of his glory and the light of his glory is so bright so brilliant so magnificent so beautiful so captivating everything in the background begins to fade all the troubles all the worries the wind of the spirit takes you to higher plateaus and as you ascend all of the chaos of the world gets left beneath you that's what it's like to truly worship you're being raptured into who he is into the splendor of his glory you're being taken up into that beautiful place with the lord thank you for watching encounter tv don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell also help us spread the gospel of jesus christ and the power of the holy spirit make a one-time 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Channel: David Diga Hernandez

Views: 41,219

Keywords: How to Overcome Distraction in Prayer, how to overcome distraction while praying, How to Focus in Prayer, Overcoming distraction in prayer, why am i distracted in prayer, Why do I get distracted while praying, overcome distraction in prayer, I get distracted when I go to pray, david diga hernandez how to pray with power, How to focus in prayer, encounter tv how to pray, Bible teaching on prayer, How prayer, Can I Overcome Distraction in Prayer?, Sermon on praying, keys to prayer

Id: -LIOf12F5mU

Length: 20min 16sec (1216 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 12 2021