{"id":24423,"date":"2026-03-11T16:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/what-if-your-mind-wanders-in-prayer\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:18:12","slug":"what-if-your-mind-wanders-in-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/prayer\/how-to-pray\/what-if-your-mind-wanders-in-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"What if Your Mind Wanders in Prayer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I hear this question all the time, \u201cWhat do I do when my mind wanders while I pray?\u201d I found a great answer in a book written hundreds of years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The authorship of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/333488\/the-cloud-of-unknowing-and-other-works-by-anonymous\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Cloud of Unknowing<\/em><\/a> is a mystery. Maybe he was a monk, maybe a priest, writing in English\u2014Middle English\u2014sometime in the late 14<sup>th<\/sup> century. Giving a younger friend advice on prayer.<\/p>\n<p>I depend on a translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher to penetrate the depths of <em>The Cloud\u2019s <\/em>practical wisdom. As Butcher points out, the author wished to remain anonymous for a reason. The light was to be shone on God, not him.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopguideposts.org\/prayer-works.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>To buy a copy of Rick\u2019s latest book, <\/em>Prayer Works<em>, click here.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cGod\u2019s not asking for your help,\u201d Anonymous writes. \u201cHe wants you to <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/daily-devotions\/devotions-for-faith-prayer\/focus-on-being-with-god\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lock your eyes on Him<\/a> and leave Him alone to work in you. Your part is to protect the door and windows, keeping out intruders and flies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those intruders and flies? Our interrupting, unwelcome thoughts. In my prayer practice, when I sit on my sofa and close my eyes, inevitably I\u2019ll start thinking of something I need to do at work, an email I should send, a question I need to ask. Intruders and flies indeed.<\/p>\n<p>Then I do something Anonymous suggests, which is to <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/prayer\/holiday-prayers\/4-one-word-prayers-for-advent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use a single word<\/a> to pull me back to my intent. \u201cThe shorter the word, the more it helps the work of the spirit,\u201d he writes. \u201c<em>God<\/em> or <em>love<\/em> works well. Pick one of these or any other word you like, as long as it is one syllable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why only one syllable? Maybe it\u2019s so we don\u2019t get caught up with anything too complicated, too stuck in our minds. As he says, \u201cNobody\u2019s mind is powerful enough to grasp who God is. We can only know Him by experiencing His love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prayer is a chance to sit and <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/daily_devotional\/gods-perfect-love\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">savor God\u2019s love<\/a>, to remember how important it is. \u201cWe can\u2019t think our way to God,\u201d the<em> <\/em>author writes. But we can meet the Lord in prayer. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m willing to abandon everything I know,\u201d he writes, \u201cto love the one thing I cannot think. He can be loved, but not by thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lost in prayer? Good for you. Lost in meandering, distracting thoughts? Try this: <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/prayer\/prayers-for-stronger-faith\/one-simple-word-that-can-change-your-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">focus on a single short powerful word<\/a>, say it quietly to yourself, and go back to your prayer.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll be doing something believers have done for hundreds of years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hear this question all the time, \u201cWhat do I do when my mind wanders while I pray?\u201d I found a great answer in a book written hundreds of years ago. The authorship of The Cloud of Unknowing is a mystery. Maybe he was a monk, maybe a priest, writing in English\u2014Middle English\u2014sometime in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":30850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[30],"ppma_author":[476],"class_list":["post-24423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-pray","tag-prayer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What if Your Mind Wanders in Prayer? - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What if Your Mind Wanders in Prayer?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I hear this question all the time, \u201cWhat do I do when my mind wanders while I pray?\u201d I found a great answer in a book written hundreds of years ago. 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