Meditative Prayer !?!

There are many types of prayer.

Some help some people and not others.

Chris could you give me an idea of what you have tried so far and what you have found helpful and what has hindered. It would help as it would allow me to make suggestions of books, resources and ideas that you may find helpful.

If you have problems with concentration, you should do two things: 1) Pray about it. It always works. 2) Train your brain, mainly your prefrontal cortex. This can be done through the methods used in Nintendo's "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes A Day" and its sequel. If you don't like Nintendo or don't own a DS, you can always look on the internet for training your concentration.

I've found another way to improve my concentration when I pray is to let my spirit not be constrained. I don't focus my eyes when they're closed, and when a thought enters my mind unrelated to what I'm talking to God about, I push it away.

When I pray out loud, I pray as if God's Spirit is swirling around me, like He's right here with me and can hear me, for He can and is.

It's often just the hard work of re-focusing your mind when you realise it has started to wander. I find memorising a scripture & saying it in my mind helps. For a season I had certain scriptures I would say in my mind 3 different ways eg using Eph 6:16
(1) Thank you God that by taking up the shild of faith I can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (said 3 times)
(2) It is written "by taking up the shild of faith I can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (said 3 times)
(3) I believe "by taking up the shild of faith I can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (said 3 times)