Prayer: Part V

In Part IV we looked at three key verses that can help us focus on, and improve, our prayer life.

Take a moment to review Matthew 6:6 and Matthew 7: 7-8. In short, respectively, the practices are
1) Go to a secret place, and 2) ask, seek and knock.

A valuable takeaway from these verses are two principles that will help you as you offer prayer(s) to the Father. Focus and Persistence.

It is becoming increasing harder to do both of these things in a world that runs exponentially; via technology, at the speed of light. Do a quick Google search. Having conducted one just now using the word focus, the resulting information available to me was 1.45B results in .55 seconds. Just a few results on the first page was a Catholic collegiate outreach organization, the new song Focus by Ariana Grande, the trailer from the movie of the same name starring Will Smith (Warner Brothers, 2014) and the definition per Merriman-Webster. My point:  there is so much information available within milliseconds, that focus is a word that arguably, could be seen as becoming as irrelevant--at an exponential rate no less--or more so; in a one hundred-eighty degree direction as technology moves forward. Focus and the Speed of Technology are therefore polar opposites, with speed on the opposite end of the vertical line increasingly pulling away from focus.

How many times each day are you interrupted--when you are trying to focus on something important--by things that you feel need to be addressed immediately, when they really could wait? And probably for a while. That incoming text message, email, phone call, Facebook notification (insert any other "app" here,) and you can easily see why this entire country is both confused and distracted by the day, by the hour, by the minute and even the second and milliseconds of time.

When are we (read:  you) as a country and culture going to realize--not only theoretically, but also in practice--how to manage our time? Can that text message not wait until after hours; or least till after lunch? Is that phone call from a friend important to take when you are in the middle of a company meeting? Must we comment on that post, picture, article, etc, at this very second?

When does time become important enough to us that we become consciously cognizant and aware of how precious our time really as; and therefore make a second, conscious decision, to use focus to our advantage? Many of us, sadly; would have to spend a good amount of time focus(ing), on the true meaning of the word itself--at the level of which it is defined--and apply with discipline and persistence, so that focus could have a chance at becoming a habit; and then honed with additional, daily practice, allowing the art of focus to become a tool that you can use to your advantage.

Please forgive the use of italics in that last paragraph, but it was important to draw your attention to the key words. It takes a lot these days (by way of practice, it seems) for people to focus on the important. 

Take just a moment and ask yourself:  What are the things in my life that I place the highest level of importance? Above all others? What are my core values, and how do they drive my decisions?

And perhaps the most important question:  Do I allow things that should not be defined as important effect my decision making?

I'll continue with this thought tomorrow citing a few studies, some personal thoughts and verses from the Bible. I want to help us identify how and when we should evaluate, re-frame and adjust our thinking toward focusing on the important, not the immediate, and how we can use this thought process to our advantage as we strive to elevate our prayer life.

Do you desire to have a more effective Prayer Life?