FINDING FOCUS

Hello!  

How's it going? I pray it's going well and that if it isn't, I pray that God will cause it to start going well. 

Welcome to today's gist.

I've wanted to share this gist for a while now but I hesitated for 2 reasons: firstly, I wanted to be sure that it worked for me before bringing it to you; secondly I wasn't entirely sure it could be regarded as theologically correct. With regards my first concern, I now know that it works and as for the second one, oh well! E dey God hand.  

For a while, and I mean a long while, I realized that staying focused while I was praying was becoming hard. I'd start praying and the thought of someone or something I was praying about would lead me to think about something else which would lead me to something else and before I'd know it, I'd be one too many thoughts away from my prayer. That used to always make me sad and it was a struggle; first I felt ashamed about it because how could I begin to go through such a dry patch after walking with God all these years? Secondly, it was a struggle that I knew was a calculated effort by the devil to kill my prayer life. 

I struggled with this for years! And you know what's terrible about it, it didn't happen when I was in community praying, it always happened when I was praying by myself. Some days I'd catch myself in time and bring my heart back to the prayer, other days I won't even notice and when I eventually did, the prayer would have a listless feel to it.

Then I was rereading Brooke St James' Wildest Dreams and I received help. In the book, Ari had told Isaac about her habit of sorting through her thoughts when making big decisions by writing down a prayer on the matter and laying it out by her bedside before going to bed. Isaac 'developed' on the idea and began to generally write down his prayers. He later told her how doing that helped him stay focused. When I read it, I thought to myself "why not, if not?"

 

Then in August, I decided to start writing my prayers down. I didn't just write the prayer points, I wrote my thoughts on each point to God, I wrote it like I'd have spoken it if I was praying with my mouth. It was tedious! I remember how some days my hands would ache after I finished writing because that day I had been led to pray many things or I had had to pray many different angles to something and writing it all down was taxing. There were days when I felt like skipping the writing and just winging it by praying with my mouth but I knew that the praying it with my mouth thing no too sure for me so I continued writing. 

Now I don't know how theologically correct what I'm doing is, but I do know that doing this has really helped me stay focused when praying and it has brought me closer to God. Now I realise that it's not the chore I once thought it was, it's actually a helpful means of communicating with God, I have an entire journal now dedicated to writing down prayers and it's been such a wholesome journey for me.

The whole point of this gist is to encourage you; if you're ever feeling like I did regarding any area of your walk with God, please open your heart and let God show you ways you can build your relationship with Him. And if you're having the problem I did, maybe you can try this method, if it doesn't work, God will show you something. 

I pray that God will help us in our walk with Him.

See you next week!

Love,

Achenyo.