SQUIRREL! ARE YOU DISTRACTED IN PRAYER?
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INTERCESSOR, HOLD OUT YOUR HAND!
WORSHIP: MILLION LITTLE MIRACLES
ARIZONA SENATOR’S INCREDIBLE PRAYER AT ELECTION AUDIT
BLINKEN: U.S. NOT PRESSING FOR MIDEAST CEASEFIRE
SQUIRREL! ARE YOU DISTRACTED IN PRAYER?
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The squirrel got me–again! No, I don’t have ADD but I think I may have spiritual ADD. I am an intercessor and am active in several prayer groups. I’m also a writer and a Clinical Social Worker, providing counseling in private practice.
One of the enemy’s favorite tools against me is distraction. Perhaps that is happening to you, as well. I can praise and fight mighty battles in prayer and then….squirrel! Satan often uses family health issues or financial events. They are tailor-made to switch my focus and to discourage me. “You have great faith for other battles, but you can’t have faith for your own family”. Or–I get tired from the stress and misinterpret it as discouragement or depression.
There are some major distractions affecting intercessors today. They may even be the very things we are praying about. Take COVID, for an example. The enemy is using it as a weapon to physically destroy our country and our world. But there is a secondary tactic: If he can use it as a diversion, he can hide other evil things he is doing, geopolitically. Meanwhile intercessors can be overcome by fear for their families and friends and get entangled in mask vs no mask, vaccine concerns, etc. and become interrupted and lose focus from prayers for revival and the Kingdom. Or maybe an intercessor has been given a burden to pray for something in his own city, but instead is distracted by COVID fears and prayer.
God is telling me to “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Ps 46:10 NIV). Basically: Quit chasing squirrels! Stay focused! Take your eyes off your fears. I will take care of it.
Here are a few tips, used for ADD/ADHD individuals (not an exhaustive list) that can be re-calibrated for us as intercessors:
- When losing FOCUS, and everything you try does not redirect, take a short break and then return. FOCUS your eyes on Jesus, then return: “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2 NIV)
- REMEMBER that you are not defective, your mind is just wired differently. REMEMBER God’s promises, your personal miracles, and that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rom 8:26 NIV)
- When medicine is necessary, take it. PUT ON your whole Spiritual Armor! “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Eph 6:13 NIV)
- Embrace your unique identity. a. THANK God for your identity. “And put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Eph 4:24 NIV) b. PRAISE God for your identity. Remember that the singers always went before the army. “When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” (2 Chr 20:21 NIV))
A thought: Squirrels really don’t have much power. They are just squirrels.
(Photo by Geran de Klerk on Unsplash.)
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Thank you for sharing this timely message. I had the same experience the past few years, distraction came from health and other family issues, etc. It is helpful to have this prayer community. Thankful to IFA keeping us on track for praying for the nation and other important issues. Lord bless you Wenona!
Thanks for this. I have been praying hard over the past 2 – 3 years. The Holy Spirit has placed on my heart to stand in prayer for Christians and this nation. My time with the Bible is almost daily. During that time I journal and make notes of what the Holy Spirit is saying. One thing I noted is how after the election and the run up I was praying harder and harder, looking for the right Psalm to pray, but I was getting extremely worn out and it was paying a toll on my well being. Then this came to me; God has this. God wants me to pray as an intercessor and he knows my heart. It is not the amount of time I pray, its not the content or the supplication for every this and that, he knows what is hurting me and the people I love and that is the same for all Christians. The Holy Spirit intercedes for me:
Romans 8:26-27 NKJV
[26] Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [27] Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
If he searches my heart and knows what is best then, I should not stress if I am missing a prayer, or not praying the correct thing, the correct way, or even stress about being distracted. All of the distractions and interruptions may be from the evil one, but he has lost the battle and the war! I have resolved to not let his phycological tactics keep me down. The evil one has only a few weapons, but no weapon formed against me will prosper. It may sting, but he has no power. Better yet, If I was not getting attacked or my prayer time disrupted then I am not praying for the right things.
For years now I have a prayer partner and we pray together every two weeks. Over the past year we started to have heated political arguments and differences, but never to the point of tearing the relationship apart. Then a most of last year and this year our planned time kept getting interrupted postponed moved to a time that made our meeting shorter. We both realized at the same time how so many things were pushing us apart. Our answer was to double down in prayer and ignore our differences and stay with what we believe ~ Our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ is King and the commander of the Angel army of the Lord will fight our battles .
Ephesians 6:10-12 NKJV
[10] Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. [12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ceasing to pray is surrender. Never let the darkness win. Never stop praying and let the Holy Spirit guide you.
Peace
Thank you for these good tactics for persevering in prayer! I need and will put these into practice!!
I appreciate your article and love the analogy! (Such a cute little squirrel! I’d be distracted too! I have a fluffy little dog who sometimes distracts me as well.) What you said was relevant and helpful. Thank u!
Thx, since Covid praying has been difficult. I appreciate your article and suggestions.
I certainly identify with the struggle to stay focused when trying to pray! There is so much going on everywhere and so much that needs to be prayed about that I can’t seem to settle down on one problem! I might start praying about something but then my mind wanders. I get so frustrated with myself! I find that I am always apologizing to the Lord for being so ‘bad’. One morning last week I tried to pray while driving to work and my mind was instantly bombarded with a million things to pray about. I finally just had to be honest with the Lord and told Him that there was so much to pray about that I didn’t even know where to start! But somehow I seem to be able to focus when I’m praying for my children and other family members who need to have the veil removed from their eyes so they can see what is truly going on and especially their need to move closer to God. And maybe for this time, that is what I am supposed to be doing.
Having ADD, I get overwhelmed by the amount of intentions that need prayer. So I then say to the Holy Spirit that you know hat is needed and I ask Him to hear all of the intentions that I have in my heart; politically, financially, spiritually, emotionally of me and others. Amen
Boy sometimes it is not even secular things that distract but the plethora of spiritual things to warfare over. I may be on one area say the nation and then all sorts of other things to pray for pop up so that it seems I am flitting from one thing to the next and not concentrating on my original focus. If I get off into things in the natural then I have to ask Holy Spirit to take every thought captive to Jesus.
Firstly, thank you so much for this quirky, yet pointed, expose of our stress-induced ADHD! I can so relate – even with the deluge of info regarding intercession – overwhelm equals shutdown. Your strategies are gems.
Thank you for this very pertinent article. I am not sure what it is that keeps me distracted and weary, but the suggestions here may help. God please help us to focus on you and on the things that are important to you.
To focus my prayer, sometimes I take a sheet of paper and divide it into six sections. I label each section with 1) adoration and praise, 2) confession, 3) thanksgiving, 4) intercession, 5) petition, and 6) affirmation and praise. I then meditate and pray by writing words or phrases under each category while prayerfully thinking about the thoughts behind the word or phrase that I’m writing. I don’t actually write a prayer, but just words or phrases in each block as the Holy Spirit leads me through my praying. It’s more about thinking and staying focused than writing a prayer. Seldom are there any squirrels that interfere with my prayer matrix. God bless you all,
Steve,
Thank you. Your suggestions are excellent…helps to keep our focus HEAVEN-minded and, thereby, fruitful!
Thank you for these encouraging articles. it’s good to know I’m not the only one who gets off track sometimes.
Thank you Lord for IFA.
What a wonderful name you have, Grace Strong!
Just as the name of our LORD is a strong tower, to which the righteous run for safety,
and just as His grace endures forever,
may His enduring grace strengthen and safely protect you to fulfill every purpose He has planned for you!
I had a friend who brought it to my attention and she would say squirrel and we both laughed because it’s so true. I’ll be praying and right down my prayers and all the sudden another thought comes crossing your mind. Oops 😬 God please help me keep on point. The worst part is when I’m at church and my pastor starts to teach and he’ll say something, which triggers another thought and sometimes a rabbit hole of thoughts. Again oh God please help me. Thank you God for being so faithful. And this article in regards to the ADHD is very informative
Haha, I got a kick out of your squirrel reference 😊. It’s very true that as I pray, I sometimes find myself just spouting words with no thought behind them and other thoughts trying to take over. I am usually able to pull myself back because BEFORE I pray, I bind out the spirits of distraction (along with others). I also make a list of topics for prayer, and that helps to keep me on point. The list isn’t rigid – God will often drop additional topics into my mind as I pray – I just add them to the list and refocus. Hope these ideas help someone! Bless you all, in Jesus’ name!
Thank you for this article! I have recently been sporadic in my intercession and very disgusted with myself.
Lord, help me to focus and ignore the attacks of satan to distract me!
Thank you for this article. I thought it was just me not focusing, but after reading this I see how Satan can distract us. I am going to share this article with others at my church.
I loved this! Thank You. I have been discouraged with myself, and this has helped me a lot!! May the Lord’s love and holy power be with us all…Amen.