Hello Jeffrey,<\/p>\n
I hope you’re doing well by the grace of God. I need your help with a challenge I face during worship.\u00a0I find it hard to focus when someone called to lead the congregation in prayer gives a relatively long prayer. Can you please share any helpful tips you know that can help me remain focused during prayers and, if possible, during other acts of worship?<\/p>\n
God bless you.<\/p>\n\t
People tend to ignore things that they have decided will not affect them. On an extreme, consider how many times Jesus tells the disciples that he will die, and they continue to argue about who is going to have the greatest position in Jesus’ kingdom. It isn’t that Jesus was mumbling. The disciples heard him. However, it didn’t register in their minds because it wasn’t what they expected. You can also see this in yourself. Many stores and elevators play background music, but I doubt most people could name the tunes they heard while shopping or riding in an elevator. You know it won’t make a difference in your life, so you focus on other things. The same thing happens in prayer if we think the things being said are not important.<\/p>\n
Decide that you are going to use what is being said later. Make notes (mentally or physically) about who is ill so you can visit them later (physically, calling them, or sending them a note). Have a notepad to jot down the main points of the prayer. Consider which topics are being brought up that should be added to your prayer. What would you say if you wanted to tell the person leading the prayer what stood out most to you after services? Was something said that you can do? Did the one praying allude to a passage? Where is the passage located in the Bible? In other words, don’t let the words go into your ears and dissipate like smoke. Find an application so that you have to consider what is being said.<\/p>\n
Be empathetic with the person praying (Romans 12:15). What is he feeling? Ask yourself if you feel the same way about what is being said. Make a mental note to talk to the one praying later about anything troubling him or something that has brought him joy.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello Jeffrey, I hope you’re doing well by the grace of God. I need your help with a challenge I face during worship.\u00a0I find it hard to focus when someone called to lead the congregation in prayer gives a relatively long prayer. Can you please share any helpful tips you know that can help…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-68519","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":31582,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-read-a-prayer-in-worship-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":68519,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong to read a prayer in worship services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong to read a prayer in worship services? Answer: \"Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching\" (I Timothy 4:13). Many of the passages of the Bible are prayers, such as Jesus' prayer (John 17), Hannah's prayer (I Samuel 2),\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":66636,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happens-if-someone-makes-a-mistake-during-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":68519,"position":1},"title":"What happens if someone makes a mistake during worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much. May God bless you for the amazing work that you do. I find it hard to switch from one act of worship to another, especially when I believe the one leading has made a mistake. For example, one Sunday, during the Lord's Supper, the one\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":47450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-prayers-be-offered-in-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":68519,"position":2},"title":"How should prayers be offered in worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where I need help is with prayers. Is it scriptural to pray saying \"In Jesus' name\" several times in between the prayer before concluding? Does it not count as vain repetitions? Is it scriptural to raise prayer points while everyone prays until the person leading will ask everyone to\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":68519,"position":3},"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":21080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-keep-my-thoughts-from-wandering-during-my-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":68519,"position":4},"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":59568,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-simple-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":68519,"position":5},"title":"A Simple Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by L.A. Stauffer via The Jackson Drive Reporter, March 15, 2009. Bible students may be struck with amazement that a body of Jewish followers would ask Jesus to teach them to pray. These were men of a nation that grew up with prayer. It was a staple of their home\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\/68519","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=68519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}