Engine Misfire, part 2: How to recognize a misfire

Yesterday, I wrote about my recent "service engine soon" light and the misfire that caused it. If you missed that blog post, you can read it here.

As promised, today we're considering how to recognize a misfire. To my predominantly left-brained mind, it sounds a bit mysterious, but it's not. An engine misfire, in very simple terms, is a loss of power and can occur for a variety of reasons. For an automobile, a misfire can cause vibrations at idle, poor acceleration, stalling out, and difficulty starting the engine. 

For the disciple of Jesus, a spiritual misfire is much the same. 

If the spark and fuel required to provide power for disciples are prayer and Bible study, a lack of either will cause adverse effects in our lives. 

How do we recognize a misfire before it becomes a complete loss of power? 

Restlessness, lack of peace, difficulty persevering in tasks God has commanded, isolation and withdrawal from our Christian community can be early signs of a misfire. 

Left to continue, the situation will deteriorate, and the works of the flesh will become evident in our lives, and all too quickly. 

In case we've forgotten, Galatians 5:19 tells us that the works of the flesh are: "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." When these things are in our lives, we have a problem that needs to be addressed.

The easiest way to recognize a misfire, though, is an accounting of time spent in prayer and Bible study. Are we opening our Bible or not? Are we spending quiet time in prayer and meditation on Scripture or not?

If we feel far from God, it's not His fault. 

If we feel far from God, the solution is simple. 

Confess our sin and ask for forgiveness. Open our Bibles and read until God's Still Small Voice speaks in our hearts. Pray until we know God has heard and answered.

Proper functioning as a disciple of Christ requires time with the One we say we follow. 

As we look toward 2016, let's live boldly as disciples of Christ, embracing the adventure of faith on a daily basis. Let's open our Bibles and bend our knees before the One who gave everything for us.
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My heart is filled with gratitude for your faithfulness in reading Lines from Leanna this past twelve months. Readership has more than tripled this year. Hearts have been encouraged. Lives have been changed. I appreciate you more than you can imagine.

To celebrate this great year, I'm hosting a special New Year's Eve e-celebration. Count down the New Year with Lines from Leanna. I'll be posting a countdown of the most-read posts of 2015 every hour beginning at 6 pm and going until midnight, so be sure to read along. Bookmark the link and check back throughout the evening.

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Need a quick holiday read? Humor mixed with faith? 

Consider my e-book. The Clay Papers (lessons in being moldable in God's hands, based on a series of pottery lessons) is now available as a 99 cent ebook on Amazon. Click the link to see more. (There's a link to give it as a gift as well.)

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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links:  Finding Christmas: Overcoming,  Finding Christmas: Giving Ourselves,  The Belated Christmas Letter, Living Lean, The Sleep Goal, The Service Engine Soon Light, and The Engine Misfire.

The most read post of the last week: Finding Christmas: The Storm Shelter.
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#enginemisfire #misfire #prayerandBiblestudy #faithful #disciple #JesusChrist

Photo courtesy of free images.com

Engine Misfire

The service engine soon light had been on for five days. It didn't look like it was going off on its on, so I drove to my mechanic's shop yesterday. On the way, I stopped by town hall. When I started the engine again, the "service engine soon" light had gone off. I considered calling it an answered prayer (which it was) and going home, but opted to have it checked. Just in case. 

"One cylinder had a misfire," John told me after a quick check of the car's computer. "It looks like just one cylinder. Has it been misfiring?" 

"Oh, no. It's been running fine." I didn't think it had misfired. Silently, I wondered how I'd recognize a misfire if it happened. 

"Well, it's not misfiring now. If it happens again, come back and we'll take a closer look."

I was delighted with the plan, but still uncertain about the cause of the misfire. As you might expect, I turned to Google. I am no mechanic, but it appears that misfires happen as a result of two possible problems. Ignition problems or fuel problems. 

There are a host of subproblems in both of these categories but, in broad terms, both a spark and fuel are required for an engine to run smoothly. 

If anything happens to prevent a solid spark or adequate fuel flow, the engine will misfire.

Nothing could be more true for the life of a disciple. We, too, need a solid spark and adequate fuel to maintain the faithful, disciplined life to which we are called. 

That spark comes from time spent with our Lord through prayer. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit that brought tongues of fire to the disciples in Jerusalem and it is that same Holy Spirit that delivers the Holy Spark to fuel our lives as disciples today. 

Without spending time in His presence, the Holy Spark will be sadly diminished in our lives.

The fuel for faithful living comes from The Book. Nothing can substitute for the Word of God, the Bible. If we are only going to read one book, it should be the Bible. As a writer of books, I say this with conviction. Only God's Book is sufficient to provide power for our souls.

Without spending time in God's Word, Divine Power and Wisdom will be greatly diminished in our lives.

We will consider how to recognize a misfire tomorrow (in lives and in cars), but, for today, let's consider the consistency of power in our spiritual life. Do we have an abundant supply of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? 

If we lack power, perhaps we have a spiritual misfire as a result of inadequate time spent in prayer and Bible study. 

The solution is simple, and can be fixed in a matter of minutes. 

Open the Bible. Bow the head. Bend the knee.

Bible study and prayer. Neither are optional. Both are essential.

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Need a quick holiday read? Humor mixed with faith? 

Consider my e-book. The Clay Papers (lessons in being moldable in God's hands, based on a series of pottery lessons) is now available as a 99 cent ebook on Amazon. Click the link to see more. (There's a link to give it as a gift as well.)

~~~~~~~~~~

In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links:  Finding Christmas: The Storm Shelter, Finding Christmas: Overcoming,  Finding Christmas: Giving Ourselves,  The Belated Christmas Letter, Living Lean, The Sleep Goal, and The Service Engine Soon Light.

The most read post of the last week: Finding Christmas: The Storm Shelter.
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#enginemisfire #misfire #prayerandBiblestudy #faithful #disciple #JesusChrist