Every Thought Captive

We take every thought captive to obey Christ. —2 Corinthians 10:5

Do you ever find that when you sit down to pray, a thousand distracting thoughts cross your mind? The English poet John Donne described this problem well:

A memory of yesterday’s pleasures,
a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw
under my knee, a noise in mine ear, an
anything, a nothing, a fancy . . . troubles
me in my prayer. ¹

Can you relate? I’ve found that it takes some time to get a quiet heart before the Lord. Sometimes I start by singing a worship chorus or reading a psalm out loud and asking the Lord to settle my heart.

When unrelated thoughts or tasks come to mind, rather than stopping to attend to them at the moment or trying to remember them later, I simply jot them down on a notepad. Then they can become direction for specific prayer. I find that as I place those concerns before the Lord, He gives me the wisdom and insight I need to deal with those matters.

¹ David L. Edward, John Donne: Man of Flesh and Spirit (London and New York: Continuum, 2001) 20.