Sense and Nonsense in Prayer by Lehman Strauss (Pt 2)

These are the final two points from my study of Sense of Nonsense in Prayer by Lehman Strauss. I read the book while studying and praying through 2 Timothy, which should explain the biographical portions:

4. The believer’s prayer book should be the Bible alone (pp. 7, 55-56, 65-67, 86).

Interspersed throughout the book is the critical connection between prayer and the Bible. It is Strauss’ assertion that the believer who knows his Bible little, knows little of prayer; therefore, encouraging the church in “the biblical way of praying” (p. 7) was one of the reasons he wrote the book. He asserts that the prayer lives of many Christians are not a success because they have not disciplined themselves to read, study, meditate on and obey the Bible.

Strauss drove the importance of biblical prayer home to my heart when he remarked, “what God says to me is infinitely more important than anything I could say to Him” (p. 66). My thinking on this subject was distorted early in my Christian life when I was weaned on books by Richard Foster who acknowledges the Bible, but sees it as ancillary to the discipline of prayer. Therefore, most of my Christian life prayer was divorced from Bible study.

Strauss helped me see that reading and studying the Bible prayerfully is the key to productive prayer so that meditating on a verse a day from 2 Timothy is the central focus of my prayer time today.

5. Christians need to pray after God answers (p. 111)

For the past seven years, my prayer life has been sporadic. I pray fervently when there is a crisis in my life, but when things are peaceful prayer is tragically the last thing on my mind.

When Strauss was recounting Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the 5000 (Matt 14; Mark 6; John 6), an event permeated with prayer, he points out that the story climaxes with Jesus praying after God blesses His ministry.

Jesus example here is very instructive. His prayer continued even though His request had already been realized. Strauss’ analysis of this passage was convicting because rather than imitating Christ, I ended up being like the modern Christians he describes who “grab the handout and say, ‘So long, God. I’ll be back when I need more’” (p. 111).

To incorporate this principle into my prayers and nip this erratic prayer trend in the bud, I have been and am now committed to continuing the discipline of daily prayer for the rest of my life. Only time will tell if I relapse into irregular prayer tendencies or persist in it every day.