There are many things that can distract us in the course of a day. Perhaps you find, as I do, that you go to do something and notice something else that needs doing. Then when you start into that, you can get distracted by yet another thing to focus on. At our house, we call this “the moose and the muffin” scenario. Let me explain. When our girls were younger, we were given a children’s book entitled, If You Give A Moose Muffin. In an entertaining way,
the story unfolds that, “If you give a moose a muffin, he’ll want some jam to go with it. So you’ll bring out some of your mother’s homemade blackberry jam…” And so the story continues with one distraction leading to another. Sometimes, our attempts to give our attention to God and prayer become like this. We can get distracted by one thing after another. Our intention is to give God our undivided attention. Even if we try to remove potential distractions, when we settle in to pray, our minds can wander and we realize that we have not kept our focus on God and on both speaking with Him and listening for Him in prayer. It seems that burdens and worries that trouble our minds are especially inclined to divert our attention from God. There are an abundance of anxious thoughts these days. We begin by praying about a particular situation or for a certain person and then find ourselves wondering what will happen and how that need will be met. We may slip into considering what our reaction will be and what we will say to someone. Before we know it, our thoughts have moved from focusing on God to focusing on ourselves and our concerns. We need God’s help to keep focused on Him. With the constant news surrounding the COVID virus, when we come to bring that to God in prayer, we can be distracted by thoughts about when we will be able to return to some activities that we miss; concern for the safety of loved ones; musing over when vaccines will become widely available; and speculating about the variants that are being reported. Here is a verse from Scripture that urges us to ”Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1b) I have found it helpful to pray out loud to keep me more focused on God in prayer. It can also be helpful to spend time thanking God for who He is and what He has done. When we are worshipping Him in this way, our thoughts will stay more focused on God. Ultimately, our prayer and our desire is expressed in these words, “More of You Lord. Less of me.” When we make this our prayer, we can say the words as we breathe in and out. While praying, we can repeat, “More of You Lord. Less of me,” whenever we notice that we are becoming distracted. Our loving God is available to draw our attention back to Him and to the vital practice of prayer when we choose to, “set our hearts on things above.” We have been following this same pattern of WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER for several months now. I pray that we look forward to this time of giving God our attention and leaning close for what he wants to say to us. When we do become distracted in prayer, let’s trust God to set our hearts and minds back on Him. Please plan to join us for our weekly WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER tomorrow February 24th at 1 pm.
Our God of love and mercy, here we are again coming into Your Presence. We come thanking You for Your grace and knowing that You see us and know us completely. You know every thought and every word before we even speak it. You God, are infinite in power and knowledge. You spoke the words and brought our world into being. Nothing that happens on this planet earth and nothing that happens in our lives escapes Your notice. You know the state of our world and You know the chaos we experience. You are well aware of the personal pain we carry. Our desire now is to come to You today and to set our hearts on things above where Jesus has ascended to Your right hand. Every day we are confronted with news that is unsettling. We want to keep our focus on You, yet find that we are distracted. Our distractions find us taking our attention away from You and becoming overwhelmed by what is around us. We think of Peter who was walking to you Jesus on the water and then looked down at the stormy waves around him and found himself starting to sink. When we get distracted from You and start to sink, please reach out Your hand and steady us. Please help us, because on our own we are so easily distracted and our fears take over. We pray, “More of You Lord and less of us.” Even as some restrictions have been lifted, we have concern that extreme caution is still so necessary in order for people to be safe. Please remind us God of what it means to be safe in You. We pray for ways that we can care about and support each other in a time when we are still apart. We pray that our focus on You will guide our awareness of other people and how they may be struggling. Thank You God that any of us can admit to You what we are struggling over. We pray that we will be honest in acknowledging our fears and bringing them to You for answers. We pray our God that we will be willing to consider that You have a different outcome in mind than that for which we earnestly pray. Your ways are not our ways and Your thoughts are not our thoughts. Remind us of what You have brought us through before and confirm our trust in You to bring us through again. And God if in our distractions, there are things You want us to see and to hear that we are missing, please show us again. Draw our focus back to You so that You can reveal and we can receive. Where could we go except to You our God? Whenever our thoughts are drawn back to You, we are relieved and realize how much we need You. Please forgive us for insisting that You bring the answers that we want. We ask You to answer in Your own wise and loving way. Every day we pray for, “More of You Lord and less of us”. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.