Yielding to Distractions

This is a wonderful little excerpt from a reading found in Charles Spurgeon's Morning & Evening...

As a shadow has no power because there is no substance in it, even so a supplication in which a man’s proper self is not thoroughly present in agonizing earnestness and vehement desire is utterly ineffective, for it lacks that which would give it force…
The common fault with most of us is our readiness to yield to distractions. Our thoughts go roving hither and thither and we make little progress towards our desired end. Like quicksilver our mind will not hold together, but rolls off this way and that. How great an evil this is! It injures us, and what is worse, it insults our God. What would we think of a petitioner, if, while having an audience with a prince, he were playing with a feather or catching a fly? … Prayer must not be our chance work, but our daily business – our habit and vocation. As artists give themselves to their models, and poets to their classical pursuits, so must we addict ourselves to prayer. We must be immersed in prayer as in our element, and so pray without ceasing.
Lord, teach us to pray that we may be more and more prevalent in supplication.

(C.H. Spurgeon)