Peter Lundell, a former missionary to Japan, is a pastor at Walnut Blessing Church in Walnut, California. He has an MDiv and DMiss from Fuller Theological Seminary and is the founder of the Walnut Valley Pastors’ Prayer Network. Lundell is the author of two books, and his articles have appeared in magazines such as Guideposts and Pray!
1. Many Christians don’t talk about hardships with prayer. Why do you open up about the struggles you have had drawing close to God in prayer?
My first draft of the book read like an instruction manual of all the things you ought to do to be spiritual like me. I realized that the more spiritual I tried to sound, the less honest I was being. I was hiding behind my words. No reader should have to put up with all that. And besides, it was boring.
So I determined to be totally honest. I rewrote the book and openly shared my doubts, struggles, and failures, because everybody goes through the same things. And if Iโm not honest with readers, how can I expect readers to be honest with others or even themselves?
I take sort of an โI mess up and you mess up, but God loves us anyway, so letโs connect with himโ approach. Readers often tell me how much they identify with that. And when they read about how God still worked amazing things in my life and in othersโ, it gives them hope.
Iโve discovered two things: First, honesty is liberating, and I donโt want to live any other way. Second, when we stick with prayer and donโt give up, answers and victories rise from our struggles. Answers and victory never rise from pretending.
I hope to connect with readers so that theyโll in turn connect with me and the victories Iโve experiencedโso that they will experience their own victories.
2. What are some of the things God has taught you about prayer over the years – especially from the perspective of your leadership roles?
Itโs good to listen before I talk. If I always dive into prayer and never spend time listening, I only dump my own โgive-me listโ on God. But his word says in 1 John 5:14โ15 that when I seek and pray according to his will, my prayer will be answered. So the key is to first get in sync with God.
Weโve got to have a hunger, or thirst, for God. Without hunger, no program or technique or anything we learn will go anywhere. But with hunger for God, we could know almost nothing and still have a great prayer life. Hunger is singularly importantโwhich is why itโs the first chapter.
When I pray with faith and donโt get what I ask for, God will soon show me why. There is always something to learn in unanswered prayer.
3. What do you mean by “praying boldly” and how can Christians learn to do that?
Praying boldly is the opposite of excessively polite prayer and ofโIโll just say itโwimpy prayer. Praying boldly is praying without intimidation, not caring what other people think, expressing ourselves to God without concern for being appropriate or religiously correct but rather with a passion from our guts that pours out, unashamedly. Bold prayer is not arrogant. Itโs humble and faithful, because of its self-abandoned focus on God and expectation of what God will do.
People often assume they must be polite or solemn before God. Nowhere does the Bible teach this. Two thirds of the Psalms are complaints, and they are not polite. Most prayers in both Old and New Testaments are bold, expectant, and to the point. When Jesus teaches on prayer in Luke 11:5โ10, he talks about an obnoxious guy who bangs on his friendโs door at midnight. Then he says we should bug him the same way by continually asking, seeking, and knocking. I often wonder if God gets tired of diplomatic prayers. Why else would he actually tell us to be bold and persistentโand use examples that, if we were on the receiving end, most of us would say are obnoxious.
Thereโs no real method to doing this. Itโs a mindset that chooses to free itself from previous assumptions and uses the Bible as a model of how to pray.
4. How can we practice the presence of God and include him in everyday tasks?
Practicing the presence of God primarily has to do with developing an attitude, a continual awareness that God is always with us, and that in turn, we always incline our attention toward him.
The first thing most of us need to do is to slow down or cut unnecessary activities from our calendar. Busyness is an enemy to practicing the presence of God. Jesus repeatedly blew off other peopleโs agendas for him and continually focused on his purpose for being here. Pastors who do the same are always happier, closer to God, and more effective. And when we practice the presence of God, we increase our ability to be intimate with him when times do get busy.
Here are some practices that may help develop that attitude: My last thought before I sleep and my first thought when I wake up is centered on God. When I get mad or stressed, I try to see things from Godโs perspective. When I am waiting for someone, I use that time to pray. I do menial tasks with an awareness and love of God. I often have a praise song on my mind as I go through the day.
5. You’re a proponent for creating a place of prayer and establishing a time of prayer. Why are these important elements for prayer?
These two disciplines are the most important external helps for maintaining a strong prayer life. Without them, our good intentions eventually drown under the assaults of busyness and distractions.
A place of prayer helps us concentrate in the face of distractions. That place could be the church sanctuary, an empty room in the house, a spot in the back yard, or even a rug laid out on the floor, on which the only thing we do is pray. The physical surroundings of a location devoted to prayer tell our brains, โFocus on God.โ And if we ever feel bored or in a rut of over-familiarity with a place, a change of location can be stimulating.
Establishing a set prayer time engrains a habit of prayer into our minds, such that if we miss it, we feel anxious because something is missing or wrongโand it is! A set prayer time is not to force ourselves to pray as much as to create a boundary of protection from busyness. That boundary of time is like a protective fence around a garden, where we give ourselves freedom from intrusions to spend unhindered time with God. Preferably weโll do this as early as possible in the morning, so we can lay the whole day before the Lord. And unlike a prayer place, I have never found benefit in changing my prayer time, so I highly recommend keeping it sacred, especially if weโre travelling or really busy. Whether short or long, this protective fence of a set time must be intentional, because no one else can do it for us.
6. What advice would you give to people who struggle with God when they pray?
True men and women of prayer will sometimes struggle in prayer, as did many figures in the Bible, like Jacobโs symbolic wrestling with the angel and Jesusโ wrestling over his fate in Gethsemane.
Like anyone else, I struggle with unanswered prayer or major decisions to do something by faith, when tragedy strikes, problems of injustice, and healings that take a lot longer than Iโd like. The key is to keep strugglingโdonโt give up and too quickly assume something is Godโs will before you know for sure. The angel commended Jacob for not giving up until he got a blessing. God the Father actually sent an angel to help Jesus wrestle in Gethsemane. Sometimes wrestling in prayer is Godโs will for us.
Wrestling in prayer is actually a good thing. It draws us closer to God. And it changes us in the process. And thatโs what most of us hope for!
Thank you for carrying my book Prayer Power on your blog.
I hope it will be a practical and enjoyable help to many.
Peter Lundell
Hi
Just wanted to post a note of thanks to you for sharing this amazing book. As a former pastor’s wife I picked up this book last winter thinking there would be nothing new for me to learn from it. I was so wrong.
Author Peter Lundell has such a wonderful way of making the complex so understandable you wonder why you never saw it before. His words put a handle on prayer that allowed my mind to grasp ideas I had never tried before.
I can honestly say this book not only changed my prayer life, it changed me as well.
If your prayer life needs a jump start give Prayer Power a try. You’ll find it has more power than a Starbucks triple espresso.
Gail