Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you openly.
The context of this statement relates to the religious leaders who prayed long, pompous prayers out in the open in front of everyone, to impress people, rather than to implore God.
These leaders were their own worst enemy when it came to their prayer life.
But for the majority of Christians who will try to avoid public speaking or public praying at every opportunity, pride or vanity is not your worst enemy – for you, there may be no worse enemy to your prayer life than “distractions”.
AW Tozer said, “Whatever excites the curiosity, scatters the thoughts”.
And once your thoughts are scattered your heart becomes noisy, absorbing all the interests of the mind and shifting your focus off the Kingdom and onto the world around you.
Technology and advancements have given us many benefits but multiplied our distractions.
How long can you go without looking at your phone? With emails, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Facetime, Wechat, cell phones, Ipods, Ipads, notebooks all at your finger-tips, distraction is not far away. And these are only the external. Then there are the internal distractions of the mind.
The moment you try to quieten yourself from your state of activity, what happens? Thoughts, random or otherwise, important or urgent, come flooding into your mind. This is the first challenge every serious prayer-warrior will battle when building prayer as a routine. The only remedy is to learn to ignore them. It may take a few weeks to train your mind to deal with them, but deal with you must. Distractions must be conquered or they will conquer you.
Train your human nature (body and soul) to follow your spirit, don’t allow them to rule over your spirit. Prayer is essential for that.
Don’t allow the desires of mindlessness and mind-pampering distract you from the things of the Lord. Use your mind as the “steering wheel” steering you towards the spirit and not the flesh.
Romans 8:5 … but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
This is the making of a warrior of prayer. It's a “mindset”.
You set your mind on praying. Ignore the emails, texts until later. Keep your mindset on what you are doing – and your prayer time will flourish and become effective.