I have been prayer for answers or the rightness of decisions for years. I don't find prayer is a big help a lot of the time. Yes, there are times when i feel at peace with a decision, but often it's because the variables weigh favorably and my judgment tells me I'm about to make a good decision. Sensing feelings during prayer, almost like an experiment, has not been useful or revealing.7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.
And the stupor of thought. I find that my mind wanders in all kinds of contexts -- not just in prayer, but sometimes in conversation, in meetings that get off track now and then, and when meditating.
I read a book on self-discipline a few months ago, and the author recommended meditation as a way to develop self-descipline. Try to keep your mind blank, or fixed on a certain thought for a few minutes. Most people's minds will wander anyway. This, I equate with the stupor of thought that causes you to forget the thing that is wrong.
What is your experience with the scripture above? Have you experienced the stupor of though as a means of telling you, from God, that a proposed course of action is wrong? How do you distinguish this "stupor" from simple mind wandering?