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.

Simplifying Exodus 25-40

I just finished reading the book of Exodus. When people do the "Read the Bible in a Year" thing, midway through Exodus is where they slow down. If they actually make it through, many if not most die in Leviticus.

So, what's the point of all the bronze and the bars and the gold and the wood and the pomegranates? Well, have you ever noticed the phrase "just as the LORD had commanded Moses" is repeated over and over again in chapter 39-40 -- I counted some 18 times in 76 verses!

They had to do everything EXACTLY as God wanted it (cf. 39:42-43) and Moses had to do everything EXACTLY as God wanted it (cf. 40:16).

So what was the result of their perfect obedience to the commands of God? It is the key to the last half of Exodus, namely, God's fellowship with His people: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle" (40:34-35).

It's easy to passover (no pun intended) these short verses, but EVERYTHING from Exodus 25-40 is meant for this one result.

Sense and Nonsense in Prayer by Lehman Strauss (Pt 1)

While in seminary I took a class on prayer. We were given a list of books to do a book report that was meant to summarize five ways the book was helpful in building your life of prayer.

What follows is what I learned about prayer from Lehman Strauss' Sense and Nonsense in Prayer, a book I rather enjoyed reading. Please keep in mind as you read that much of this review is biographical and refers to my life from February 2003.

1. God is silent when sin breaks the communion between Him and the believer (pp. 20-24, 49, 64-65, 101).

Believers are not only united with Christ, but John 15:1-8 teaches that they also have a special communion with Him (pp. 63-68). But, while the believer’s union with Christ will never change, their sweet communion with Him can be broken. Believers can erect “a barrier” (pp. 21, 101) or put an “obstacle” (p. 49) or “cut the lifeline” (p. 21) between them and God by sinning.

Experientially, I knew this. There have been times where the weight of my sin was so heavy that it felt like God was far away from me. However, I did not know of any biblical support for my feelings, which left me confused until Strauss’ biblical references on the separating effects of sin hit me squarely on the chin (see Ps 66:18; Isa 1:13-15; 59:1-2).

Understanding that “[I] am responsible for God’s silence” (p. 21) is driving me to seek a deeper level of righteousness. Taking this principle seriously, I am currently tracking someone down who I sinned against many years ago to ask her for forgiveness so my prayers will “accomplish much” (Jas 5:16).

2. There is a direct correlation between the believer’s concept of God and his prayers (pp. 35, 39).

In the context of praying in Jesus’ name (pp. 35-41), Strauss asserts that “prayer rises or falls with one’s concept of Jesus Christ” (p. 35), a principle that would have been even stronger had he incorporated verses like Hosea 4:6; 6:6 and Jeremiah 4:23 into his discourse.

While I generally agree with this statement, I would clarify it by saying prayer rises or falls with the believer’s concept of God because, as Strauss teaches later in the book (pp. 120-21) we do not pray only to Jesus, but to all the persons of the Trinity. He goes on to say that anyone “who holds a light view of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot have a worthwhile prayer life” (35).

The believer who does not know what Jesus is like cannot pray to Him as they ought. He is not able to trust Him freely, or love Him deeply, or ascribe to Him the glory He deserves. After a while, these prayers disrespect the King, making it so that the ignorant believer has “no right to expect God to answer his prayers” (39).

Because of this principle I am now incorporating the Bible into my prayers by meditating on a verse of 2 Timothy every day before praying. The verse I turn over in my mind than becomes my springboard into praise/thanks, confession, etc. This way, I am learning about God as I pray and therefore, I am able to pray according to that knowledge.

3. It is “rude imposition” (p. 58) to ask God for anything without an attitude of thanksgiving (pp. 57-62).

Asking God for anything must be saturated by praise/thanksgiving for everything. I grew up ignorantly treating God like a cosmic bellhop who was supposed to jump at my requests. It was only in the past few years that I realized I deserve nothing good from God and therefore, “whenever [I] approach God for anything, [I] should not fail to thank Him for those blessings and mercies [I] have already received” (pp. 58).

According to Psalm 100:4, the right way to approach God’s throne is with praise/thanksgiving and blessings. This biblical teaching in Strauss’ book and the discipline of daily prayer has taught me that my prayers are very self-centered.

For instance, when I was in 2 Timothy 2:25 a few weeks ago I desperately cried out to God for my grandpa’s salvation after my grandma died. However, my prayers of praise/thanksgiving for his receiving Christ still lack the same fervency and urgency of my entreaties for his salvation (prayers God graciously answered in December 2006).

Therefore, Strauss’ insights have been driving me to begin my prayer time with praise/thanks to God for an attribute of His character related to the verse I am studying in 2 Timothy (e.g., mercy in 2:25) as passionately and intentionally as I petition Him.

I'll finish this book review in the next post.

Chapter 1: Why I Wrote This Book (Pt 3)

I had to give this quote from C.S. Lewis. Read it carefully and apply it to your desires for and satisfactions in God:

"Provided the thing is in itself right, the more one likes it and the less one has to 'try to be good,' the better. A perfect man would never act from sense of duty; he'd always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people), like a crutch, which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it's idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits, etc.) can do the journey on their own!" (C.S. Lewis: Letters to Children, 276).

I am reading this book because I want "a joy in Christ that is so deep and so strong that it will free me from bondage to Western comforts and security, and will impel me into sacrifices of mercy and missions, and will sustain me in the face of martyrdom. ... The key to endurance in the cause of self-sacrificing love is not heroic willpower, but deep, unshakable confidence that the joy we have tasted in fellowship with Christ will not disappoint us in death" like the Christians in Hebrews 10:34 (20, 21).

My heart screams "Yes!" when I read this, yet my experience feels like it mirrors the blind man who tries to ride a dead horse that he doesn't know is dead. He commands it, and kicks it, and yells, yet it goes no where. That is often how my heart feels inside me, and I want that so desperately to change.

I want to "truly experience...the unsurpassed worth of Jesus with so much joy that [I] can say, 'I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord' (Phil 3:8)" (21).

This is the only kind of experience that is worthy of the Savior!