Patient Concentration

Ps.37:⁷ Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.

Prayer is countercultural. In our culture we are typically distracted, but prayer takes concentration. It used to be children that have short attention spans, but these days adults have very short attention span. For a lot of people, if a message is not tweetable [in other words 140 characters), they do not remember the Word of God. If possible, they will ask God to tweet whatever He wants to say. In other words, limit it to 140 characters and they will be fine. However, with God sometimes you just have to sit down there and focus on Him. Initially, it would be as if there is a war going on inside you – you are tempted to get up, you want to check your phone, your mind is going in different directions.

Like a cocaine addict having withdrawal symptoms, that is how a lot of people are when they are praying. It is as if we need a fix; you are praying but you are checking your phone. What are you checking your phone for? Is the phone running away? Excuse me, if you do not check your phone for the few minutes you spend praying and honouring God, is the world going to stand still? We come to God to pray but we come with our phones, not because you want to take notes but because you want to check updates. So, we are distracted. In our culture, we have things going on simultaneously. It is so bad these days that if you do not have concurrent things going on in your life, it is as if your life is void. You put food on the fire, plug the iron, run the bath and then start shuttling between all these. Unfortunately, that is how a lot of people work. That is how a lot of people approach prayer and approach God, but guess what? Prayer is the opposite of that; prayer requires focus. Daniel had to go kneel down, focus towards Jerusalem and prayed.

In our culture we like instant results, but prayer takes patience. Most people reading this would agree that, there were things you started praying for and after praying for a while, you assumed that it was not going to happen. Then over time, you totally forgot about it and then it happens. The challenge is that when you were praying, you were impatient because you wanted the answers – now! God is saying, you have asked, I will get it to you do not worry. If only we can apply this learning to our current prayer points, we will be less impatient. We have gotten too accustomed to instant result because almost everything is instant now, but prayer takes patience.

Prayer: Father, in Jesus Name, I will focus on and wait patiently on the Lord because He is good, and his mercy endures forever. I praise You for Your unfailing love, in Jesus Name. Amen!