I have a couple of questions regarding my prayer life that are bothering me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve searched for the answers to these myself, but the only places I\u2019ve found them addressed is from the Catholic church, and I\u2019d rather hear an opinion from a member of the church of Christ.<\/p>\n
First Question or Concern:<\/p>\n
When I pray, my personal private prayers tend to be long and my mind starts to wander or drift.\u00a0 I feel guilty for not being able to keep constant focus in my prayer time to God.\u00a0But I find myself asking for forgiveness so much in my prayer time that it is hampering the actual prayers.\u00a0Every time my mind drifts, I pray for forgiveness.\u00a0I know that in a normal conversation with a friend, our minds drift, and we have to bring them back to point.\u00a0 But is this something I should ask forgiveness for?\u00a0 How should I handle this?<\/p>\n
Second Question or Concern:<\/p>\n
I am a strong believer that each time we pray we should acknowledge that God gave His Son for our sins by having him die on the cross.\u00a0However, should we go through the entire crucifixion in our minds each time we acknowledge this?\u00a0 Or is it sufficient to just thank God for the sacrifice without trying to recreate that scene in our minds every time we pray?<\/p>\n
I would appreciate your thoughts on these subjects.\u00a0 I am a member of the church and attend regularly.\u00a0I just don\u2019t feel comfortable asking our preacher these questions. I have read your articles, and I tend to agree with your thoughts on things, so I wanted your opinion.<\/p>\n\t
What would be good is to go through the prayers in the Bible. Most of the prayers are not that long. Most are focused on just a few topics, often a single matter that concerned the one praying. I think the reason your mind is drifting is that you have a rote set of topics, allowing you to express yourself without much focus.<\/p>\n
You will find that many of the prayers do acknowledge a person’s sins, but not all or even the majority. So instead of following a set pattern to your prayers, pick three or four topics that are most on your mind and pray about them. Take a moment or two to stretch, and if there are more things you need to discuss with the Father, bring them up in a follow-on prayer.<\/p>\n
Being thankful to God for His blessings, especially the blessing of salvation through His Son’s sacrifice, is an important aspect of prayer. But consider the times Jesus’ death is mentioned in the New Testament. Every reference to his death did not require a complete, detailed description of the crucifixion; yet, the appreciation for what was done comes through no less clearly.<\/p>\n
Prayer serves a variety of purposes. It is communication with God. Just like the letters you write each have a purpose. Every letter doesn’t cover all topics, nor will you find a topic always covered in every letter. Make your prayers letters to God which are done with a purpose in mind.<\/p>\n
“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men<\/em>” (I Timothy 2:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Notice the variety of communications mentioned in just this one verse. Make your prayers varied as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I have a couple of questions regarding my prayer life that are bothering me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve searched for the answers to these myself, but the only places I\u2019ve found them addressed is from the Catholic church, and I\u2019d rather hear an opinion from a member of the church of Christ. First Question or Concern: When…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-25566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-keep-my-thoughts-from-wandering-during-my-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":25566,"position":0},"title":"How do I keep my thoughts from wandering during my prayers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When I try to pray, I cannot always pay full attention. My mind wanders many times. I am cautious about my prayers, but I still drift away in my thoughts. Answer: When you read through the prayers recorded for us in the Bible, what becomes noticeable is that most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24516,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-make-your-prayer-life-better\/","url_meta":{"origin":25566,"position":1},"title":"How do you make your prayer life better?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What should you do if you have been baptized and trying to live the Christian life, but your prayer life is not as it should be? You go for weeks without praying and asking God to forgive your sins. Then when you do pray for forgiveness, you never feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-for-a-church-to-pray-together-silently\/","url_meta":{"origin":25566,"position":2},"title":"Is it proper for a church to pray together silently?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffery, Thanks for always answering questions. They've been helpful to me and the people around me. I want to ask you a question about the orderliness of prayer in the church. Can the church pray such that a time is given during worship, such as 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67666,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-ask-for-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":25566,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong to ask for forgiveness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I hope you are well, My question here is twofold. First, I was taught that we shouldn't ask for forgiveness; instead, we should thank God for his forgiveness. This, though, feels both right and wrong. This confuses me a bit because nowhere in the Scripture does it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36815,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-certain-prayer-of-forgiveness-for-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":25566,"position":4},"title":"Is there any certain prayer of forgiveness for fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm a Catholic. I'm in need of advice! I've committed fornication with a girl I'm in a relationship with! I prayed to God for forgiveness! Is there any certain prayer of forgiveness to pray for the sinful acts I've done? I don't want to turn my back on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-hide-behind-your-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":25566,"position":5},"title":"Don\u2019t Hide Behind Your Prayers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clay Gentry We're called to be people of prayer. Jesus Himself taught that we \"ought always to pray and not lose heart\" (Luke 18:1). However, if we are honest, sometimes our prayers are merely a pious way of being inactive. It is easy to hide behind the sincerity of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}