251 The Noisy Altar: Prayer When Your Mind Won’t Be Still
Does the struggle to focus in prayer make you question if you’re doing it right?
Good morning and hello friends,
The coffee is hot, but my focus is not. I’ve read the same verse three times. My mind is a jumble of yesterday’s worries and tomorrow’s to-do list. The quiet time I carved out feels anything but quiet on the inside.
I remember not long ago, when my faith was new. I thought walking with God meant a constant, warm feeling. A steady stream of divine comfort. I didn’t know then that some days, faith feels like showing up to a silent room and sitting down anyway.
Jesus tells a story in Luke 18. He says, “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.” (Luke 18:7-8, ESV).
I read that and think, But I have been crying out. Where is the speed?
Then I see the next line. Jesus ends the parable with a question that smacks me in the back of my head: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Will He find faith? Not feeling. Not emotion. Not a perfectly curated quiet time.
Faith
It occurs to me that faith is not the absence of distraction. It is the choice to pray through it. It is see the world and its distractions for what they are and walking around them. It is not the certainty of an answer. It is the persistence to ask, day and night, when the answer seems far away. My job this morning isn’t to achieve spiritual clarity. My job is to be the persistent widow, knocking on Yahua’s door with my messy, distracted heart.
Maybe your mind is noisy today, too. Maybe your prayers feel like they’re hitting the ceiling. The call isn’t to fix the feeling first. The call is to faithfulness in the feeling. Show up. Read the verse a fourth time. Say the fractured prayer. The value is in the posture, not the poetry.
He sees you in the distraction. He hears the prayer behind the panic. Your persistent heart, even when it feels weak, is the faith He is looking for.
What ordinary distraction is competing for your focus today? Can you bring that very thing to Him in prayer, right now?
That is all, and thank you for reading.
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Shashue Monrauch