{"id":2322,"date":"2015-07-31T14:25:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T18:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2322"},"modified":"2015-07-31T14:25:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T18:25:46","slug":"a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><i>Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. (Colossians 4:2)<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left\"><span class=\"s1\">If you are like me, you struggle\u00a0with staying focused when you pray.\u00a0The answer is simply this:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>keep the thanks flowing! As we lift up the people\u00a0in our lives\u00a0that we are\u00a0committed to, we will continue to pour out our thanks to God for what He has done and what He has promised to do in their lives. No power of hell can withstand the force of gratitude!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Father,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Thank you for this key insight! It was right there before me all these years, and I finally have eyes to see it. Thank you for opening my eyes and ears to a\u00a0clearer understanding of your Truth. Now teach me to pray diligently, staying on track with you, enjoying my times of praise and adoration, and growing in gratitude day by day!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Amen<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. (1 Thes. 1:2) <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. (Daniel 6:10)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, \u201cO Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you \u2026 (Luke 10:21)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. (Colossians 4:2) If you are like me, you struggle\u00a0with staying focused when you pray.\u00a0The answer is simply this:\u00a0 keep the thanks flowing! As we lift up the people\u00a0in our lives\u00a0that we are\u00a0committed to, we will continue to pour out our thanks to God&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[1268,148,117,1269,260,1270,259,147],"class_list":["post-2322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-distracted-prayer","tag-gratitude","tag-prayer-3","tag-praying-for-others","tag-thankfulness","tag-thanking-god","tag-thanks","tag-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. (Colossians 4:2) If you are like me, you struggle\u00a0with staying focused when you pray.\u00a0The answer is simply this:\u00a0 keep the thanks flowing! As we lift up the people\u00a0in our lives\u00a0that we are\u00a0committed to, we will continue to pour out our thanks to God&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-31T18:25:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction","og_description":"Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. (Colossians 4:2) If you are like me, you struggle\u00a0with staying focused when you pray.\u00a0The answer is simply this:\u00a0 keep the thanks flowing! As we lift up the people\u00a0in our lives\u00a0that we are\u00a0committed to, we will continue to pour out our thanks to God&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2015-07-31T18:25:46+00:00","author":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html","name":"A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-07-31T18:25:46+00:00","dateModified":"2015-07-31T18:25:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/07\/a-prayer-to-learn-to-pray-without-distraction.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Prayer to Learn to Pray Without Distraction"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf","name":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","caption":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw and their four children have been ministering in their local church since 1990. 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