Why is prayer so hard?

[upamountain]

For the past few months I've found it so hard to pray, and if I do then I get so easily distracted and lose concentration. Any advice?

 

[Ceili]

Are you meaning in your church setting? Can you take a walk and talk to the Lord that way you are moving and feeling the spirit all around you. I too feel praying at times in a church is filled with distractions. I go for walks and this helps. I don't think this is uncommon at all.

 

[Chaplain David]

When I saw what you wrote I had the thought, "write God a letter." Pour all of this into it and anything else as well." It could turn into an ongoing thing or maybe just a onetimer. After you write it read it outloud. Make sure there aren't any distractions and that you are in a private place.

But, the fact that you're thinking about it, doing it despite prayer being difficult for you at the moment, and also writing here on the forum shows me you are making progress.

Did you know that one of the simplest prayer that can be said when words just won't come is this:

HELP ME GOD

God bless you during this time of celebration.

Faithfully,

 

[upamountain]

Are you meaning in your church setting? Can you take a walk and talk to the Lord that way you are moving and feeling the spirit all around you. I too feel praying at times in a church is filled with distractions. I go for walks and this helps. I don't think this is uncommon at all.

Actually I mean when I'm on my own. In church I have to concentrate as it's in my second language.
I can pray out loud in a prayer meeting with others there, but this just makes me feel hypocritical as when I'm on my own trying to have a quiet time I can only pray for about 1 minute and then my mind is all over the place and I find my body has decided it's time to wander off and do something else.

2nd poster (sorry, can't see your name now), thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it.

 

[Johnnz]

That's pretty common. You can try writing down your prayers. or, just offer short, conversational type prayers while you are not fully engaged mentally on something else.

John
NZ

 

[paul becke]

It's a bit like believing, upamountain. I think it was St Augsutine of Hippo who said that if you are looking for God, for belief in God, you have already found him, because it is he who puts that desire in your heart.

Similarly, the desire to communicate with God is what counts. The main purpose of prayer is precisely to get us in the habit of turning our hearts towards him. He knows our needs and dearest wishes, of course, without having to hear us tell him. But by doing so, we do, of course, do that: turn our hearts towards him. I expect the Lord's Prayer is also to remind us of his priorities, for our own good.

One tried and trusted form of prayer, at times when we have little time to spare for continuous spiritual attentiveness, is the very short kind of prayer, called 'ejaculatory prayer'. I only know Catholic ones, so I'll give some examples of these:

'Sacred heart of Jesus have mercy on us.' Or a contraction of it, right down to 'Jesus'.

'Immaculate heart of Mary pray for us.' 'St Joseph pray for us.' Someone's 'holy guardian angel pray for her/him and those of the people he/she meet'.

Some people, of course, may prefer to restrict such prayers to Jesus, or our Heavenly Father.

Prayer is a funny thing, though. When we are fortunate enough to be able to concentrate on our prayers, when our mind is distracted and we stop praying in our mind, our heart tends to stay in a kind of praying mode for a while afterwards, so your prayers may be much less distracted than you think.

Anyway, something to bear in mind about 'aridity' during prayer is that it in no way reflects a diminution of the worth or efficacy of it, but rather the opposite. I'm sure we all appreciate prayers when they come sweetly, but it's more receiving than giving, though, isn't it? Not that there isn't a time for everything.