Crank Your Engine
Theme of the Week: Jumpstarting Sluggish Prayers
Peter Lundell
Sunday, November 1, 2009
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Who Said It … Peter Lundell
Peter Lundell is a former missionary to Japan and currently pastors Walnut Community Church in Walnut, California. Along with publishing articles in numerous magazines, he's the author of Armed for Battle, When God Bursts In, and the recently published Prayer Power. Peter's hobbies include woodworking and surfing the Pacific with a specially designed "surf kayak." He has a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Peter and his wife, Kim, have one daughter. What He Said … Crank Your Engine
When the automobile was first invented, no one had conceived of a starter. So while one person sat at the wheel, another person stood in front of the car and cranked a handle connected to the engine. Round and round they'd heave the crank until the engine started. This led to phrases like "crank the engine" and "crank it up."
Sometimes prayer may feel like a dead engine, and it takes deliberate cranking to get the communication started.
Too many times I have experienced the truth of Jesus' words: "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" (Mark 14:38). I may sit or stand or walk while I try to talk with God, but my mind is like a dead engine. These are times when I "start in the flesh and end in the Spirit."
Starting in the flesh and ending in the Spirit means that we may not feel like praying, but we go ahead and pray anyway. As we do this, our prayer starts to flow naturally.
Adapted from Prayer Power (Revell, 2009) by permission
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Dear Heavenly Father, help me to pray more consistently, more fervently, and more selflessly.
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