Wondering Thoughts During Prayer

The following came from Zacharias Tanee Fomum which is very practical for your prayer life:

Does your mind ever wonder when you try to pray? Mine does. Here are a couple of tips that have helped me stay on task while I am praying. First, if possible, I pray out loud. There is something about hearing my voice that keeps my thoughts from bouncing around.

But the most helpful suggestion came to me came from Zacharias Tanee Fomum, a professor of organic chemistry, pastor and author who lives in Cameroon, Africa. In his book, The Practice of Intercession, he gave examples of how your prayer time could be broken down by the minute.

You will need an electronic timer. If you go to a major store and look in the cooking section for a few dollars you can find one those electronic timers that will count up or down in seconds and minutes. Then make list depending on long you want to pray. Let’s say you fifteen minutes to pray. Here is a suggested list from Fomum that is slightly edited:

First minute - Confession of sin

Second minute - Thank the Lord

Third minute - Pray for local church

Fourth minute - Pray for pastor(s)

Fifth minute - Pray for five unsaved people

Sixth minute - Pray for another five unsaved people

Seventh minute - Pray for five believers to grow in the Lord

Eighth minute - Pray for five backsliders

Ninth minute - Pray for a ministry

Tenth minute - Pray for a ministry that you are a part of

Eleventh minute - Continue prayer for a ministry

Twelfth minute - Pray for the leader of a ministry

Thirteenth minute - Pray for an unevangelized area of the world

Fourteenth minute - Pray for political leaders of your nation

Fifteenth minute - Thank the Lord for privilege of prayer

Now obviously, there are numerous ways you could vary this list and this method. If you set aside thirty minutes for prayer you could have 30 minutes of one minute each, 15 periods of two minutes each, 10 periods of three minutes each, etc. But I have found sixty seconds to be about the right amount of time many prayer categories. By keeping one eye on my list, and another eye on my timer, my mind is forced to stay on task, and that helps to keep my mind from straying during prayer.