10 Remedies Against the Sin of a Wandering Mind in Prayer

To pray, and to know one is heard by God, is a wondrous event. To pray is to be ushered into the very presence of God where Christ Himself is seated, and delights in our petitions. To pray is to grasp at heaven, and draw its reality and its power down into our world. To pray is humbling, for we know the one to whom we bow is both tender and firm, delighting in both blessing and fatherly discipline. To pray is also an honor, for it is only under the covenant of grace, under the blood of Christ, that we can be assured our prayers are heard.

While every true Christian has some depth of prayer life, it is apparent that there are degrees to be had of the experience of prayer. Some, by way of carelessness and neglect never venture far from the shore. Their prayers are quick, often distracted, and joyless. Others, by God’s grace, will be led out into deeper waters where their feet cannot touch. One cannot wade into deeper waters with God however, if settling for checklist punchcard prayers. O but what abiding joy the saints that venture out and taste the sweeter waters offshore often live in.

In a sermon titled How May We Cure Distractions in Holy Duties, the great Puritan preacher Thomas Manton (1620–1677) discusses the great tragedy of a consistently wandering mind in prayer. This is a reality that many Christians, myself experience, but Thomas Manton reveals how an unchecked wandering mind is not only sinful, but might be deadly to our faith. He describes that a wandering mind in prayer is a mockery of God that argues the loss and non-acceptance of our prayers. He writes that it is evidence of practical atheism and the carrying on of strong and unmortified lusts. Manton wants no Christian to settle for half-hearted prayers distracted and ineffective. Rather he calls the reader upwards to engage the reality of God through fervent prayer, with effort, with practice, and with joy filled discipline.

Manton then lists ten remedies that we can put into practice to begin combatting our wandering minds. I offer a paraphrased version of his remedies below. As I write this out, I am convicted of my own prayer life, how far I have to go. I confess that I very often experience wandering thoughts about the most trivial things. I have never truly considered how weighty, and sinful, these wandering thoughts are until engaging with this sermon by Manton. I pray this outline serves you as well as Manton’s sermon has served me.

I. Go to God and Ask Him For Help: If we truly are concerned about our casually wandering minds while attempting to prayer, we ought to go to God and ask him to focus our mind and our attention on him. Ask him to remove the distractions from our mind and grant us a true sense of the nature of our task while in prayer.

II. Meditate on God’s Greatness: As we enter to prayer, pause and reflect on the gravity of the task. Were we to seriously meet with the President of our nation, we would not dare approach the time with a casual mindset. How much more so with the King of Kings ought we prepare our minds to engage him, to sit beneath His throne. Dare we petition the ultimate sovereign with half-hearted appeals?

III. Put to Death Sins that Distract Our Minds: The real source of so much distraction in prayer is sin outside of prayer. Our engagement with the corruption of our surrounding culture fills our minds with thoughts and images that do not go away easily. If we truly love God, and long for greater intimacy in prayer, then cut off the root of the worldly thoughts before they ever enter the mind and take root.

IV. Intentionally Put Off Distractions Before Entering Prayer: Prepare for prayer by considering the things that might distract. Write them down if you must in order that you may come back to them later. Having engaged with them, put them aside, and only then engage in that great work of prayer.

V. Pray with Intensity of Purpose: Do not let Satan cheat you out of fervent prayer. The moment you discover a distracted thought, cut it’s legs off before it begins to run wildly throughout your mind. Do not permit a distant siren’s call to linger, lest after time it pull your mind into peril.

VI. Engage Your Affections In Prayer: David “was glad” when they said to him “Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1). Set your frame of spirit to an eagerness to meet with your Savior. Remember all His blessing and promises and let them wash over you as the warmth of the sun as the go to your knees. Feel His goodness and rejoice in His presence.

VII. Remember the Weightiness and Consequences of Prayer: Consider the weight of the business unto which you attend. Certainly, if you were to truly consider what was taking place even in the simplest of Christian prayers, your mind would be less prone to wandering. When we pray, God hears. Very often it is our prayers which God has ordained to be the cause of lives changed and eternities altered. It is not light thing to pray.

VIII. Learn From Each Wandering in Order to Improve Over Time: When beset by a wandering mind in prayer, take note of what caused it in the first place, and then determine to root it out in order that you might not be overcome by the same temptation to sin once again. It is a sad thing to be overcome by a deceitful thought while engaged in prayer. How much more pitiful, to let that same temptation cause distraction repeatedly.

IX. Keep a Constant Holiness of Heart: Keep your affections for God burning at all times. Many walk through their day letting the embers grow cold, only to hope to jumpstart an inferno with a few short minutes of prayer before bed. Keep the fire burning throughout the day. Tend to it as you walk, as you conduct your affairs, in each conversation. Then, when you go to prayer, you are beginning with an already heated fire.

X. Engage in Frequent Meditation: The Christian must not engage in Eastern meditation which is set on clearing one’s mind. This is pagan idolatry. Rather we are to meditate on God’s Word and fill our mind with His truth. In doing so not only do we gain more heartwarming knowledge of the greatest good in our life, God himself, but moreover we gain great command and mastery over our own soul.