If this idea that prayer consists of attention to God seems strange to Us, perhaps it is because we have given up the discipline and no longer really know how to pray. In most of our praying, our attention is neither focused nor on God.
What we attend to is largely our own selves, and this is a rather generalized and ambiguous way.
Prayer, both public and private, and particularly among Protestants, tends to be almost totally prayer of petition. We have some need, and we pray that it will be met.
We are in some trouble, and we pray that God will take it away. Even when we do pray prayers of praise, thanksgiving, and confession, we do so with our attention turned to what we are pleased with, thankful for, and guilty of.
We find it extremely difficult to allow our praise, thanks, confession, petition, and intercession to be formed by attention to God, and awfully easy to allow the God to whom we pray to become a mere reflection of our own concern.
At least this is what I experience myself as a prayer and what I perceive in most public worship. “Simple attentiveness” is most difficult. It is also very important.
This is an excerpt from a book Vision and Character by Craig R. Dykstra. If you would like to buy this book please click here.