Finding Focus in a Noisy World

Have you ever closed your eyes to pray and found yourself, five minutes later, scrolling social media? Our world is noisy, but this is not a new thing. Believers throughout history have had to fight for focus in their prayer lives. Susanna Wesley had 19 children (nine of whom died in infancy). But she draped her apron over her head to pray while her kids were playing or studying all around her. George Müller kicked his conversation with God into gear by praying over what he had studied in the Bible that day.

Seven years ago, when I was anxious and pregnant, I had a thousand things I wanted to cover in prayer. But I had no “brain space” to make it happen.

I have a newspaper-design background, and I like structure. I was convinced a format must already exist, but after a few months of Google searches, I created my own system to organize my thoughts and focus my prayer—a prompted prayer journal.

Since that time, we’ve heard from tens of thousands of people that prayer is a struggle for them, even seasoned believers.

Hearing their comments has increased my passion to help every believer pray confidently and consistently. So how does this prayer journal practically do that?

I designed a journal that allows you to fill out the prompts at the beginning of the month (areas, such as world and nation, church, family, and personal, with blank spaces to customize). Then you can pray through a section or two a day. At the end of the month, you can look back and fill out the “God Answers” section. This is a good way to remember all He’s done, and it can encourage you to continue trusting Him for the months ahead

God didn’t call us to an impossible task. A prayer journal can help overcome the lie that we’ll never grow our prayer lives. Even the most unlikely pray-ers, in an organized way, can experience a deeper relationship with the Lord in a chaotic and noisy world.

VALERIE WOERNER lives in Lafayette, LA, with her husband and two daughters. Her various prayer journals—for women, men, teens, and kids—are available on her website: valmariepaper.com.