Thomas Watson
How shall we cure these vain, irreverent thoughts, which distract us in prayer and, we fear, hinder its acceptance?
(1) Be very conscious in prayer of the infinite nature of God’s majesty and purity. His eye is upon us in prayer, and we may say as David: “Thou tellest my wanderings” (Ps 56:8). The thoughts of this would make us remember the duty we are about. If a man were to deliver a petition to an earthly prince, would he at the same time be playing with a feather? Set yourselves, when you pray, as in God’s presence. Could you but look through the keyhole of heaven and see how devout and intent the angels are in worshipping God, surely you would be ready to blush at your vain thoughts and vile irreverence in prayer.
(2) Keep your eye fixed. “Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens” (Ps 123:1). Much vanity comes in at the eye. When the eye wanders in prayer, the heart wanders. To think of keeping the heart fixed in prayer, and yet let the eye gaze, is as if one should think of keeping his house safe, and yet leave the windows open.
(3) Get more love to God. Love is a great fixer of the thoughts. He who is in love cannot keep his thoughts off the object of his love. He who loves the world has his thoughts on the world. If we loved God more, our minds would be more fixed on Him in prayer. If there was more delight in duty, there would be less distraction.
(4) Implore the help of God’s Spirit to fix your minds on praying and make them serious. The ship without a pilot rather floats than sails. So that our thoughts may not float up and down in prayer, we need the blessed Spirit to be our pilot to steer us. Only God’s Spirit can place a bound on our
1An edited extract from Watson’s The Ten Commandments.
thoughts. A shaking hand may as well draw a line steadily as we can keep our hearts fixed in prayer without the Spirit of God.
(5) Make holy thoughts familiar to you in your ordinary course of life. David was often musing on God: “When I am awake, I am still with Thee” (Ps 139:18). He who gives himself liberty to have vain thoughts, when he is not praying, will scarcely have other thoughts in prayer.
(6) Watch your hearts, not only after prayer, but during prayer. The heart will be apt to give you the slip and have a thousand wanderings in prayer. We read of angels ascending and descending on Jacob’s ladder; so in prayer you shall find your hearts ascending to heaven, and in a moment descending onto earthly objects. Christians, watch your hearts in prayer. What a shame it is to think that, when we are speaking to God, our hearts should be in the fields, or in our counting houses, or one way or other running upon the devil’s errand!
(7) Labour for larger degrees of grace. The more ballast the ship has the better it sails; so the more the heart is ballasted with grace, the steadier it will sail to heaven in prayer.