"The Prayer of Unwanting" (David Williams)

TITLE: The Prayer of Unwanting
AUTHOR: David Williams
PUBLISHER: Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2025, (176 pages).
 

Many have heard of the bestselling book "The Prayer of Jabez." Despite its attractive thesis, it is still a prayer contrasting sharply with the Lord's Prayer. The key difference is the focus. While the Lord's Prayer is how we yield ourselves to God's will, the Jabez Prayer's key thesis is about making God yield to our wants and needs. Enters this book about the essence of prayer. Entitled "The Prayer of Unwanting," it pushes back against almost everything the bestselling book on the Jabez Prayer is all about. Author and pastor David Williams gives us this book as a guide to the essence of what the Lord's Prayer is all about. As far as Williams is concerned, the Lord's Prayer is not a magical list of verses that we can use to bring God to our needs. Rather, it is an opportunity to think more of God and less about us. He guides us through the entire prayer with an exposition of the prayer snippets.

Beginning with "Our Father," he points out that prayer is a personal connection with God as our Heavenly Father. "Who Art in Heaven" lifts us above this finite world toward hope in the Infinite God. We learn to see the proximity of what it means to live heavenly thoughts on earth. "Hallowed Be Thy Name" focuses on holiness. Williams laments about the lack of holy awareness in this world even among believers. This prayer for holiness comes when we learn to let go of our earthly anxieties and gaze at God's holiness. The fourth snippet, "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, on earth as it is in heaven" takes us to the heart of Jesus. 

The fifth snippet is "Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread"  to help us sieve through the differences between needs and wants. Learning to find peace with lesser stuff is a mark of growing spirituality. "Forgive Us Our Debts as We Forgive Our Debtors" is a hard petition because forgiveness is not a natural human attribute. For we are not as innocent as we might think, especially when we are exposed before God. "Lead Us Not Into Temptation" checks our heart's desire. Anyone who thinks they can easily overcome any temptation needs to think again. That is why "Deliver Us From Evil" is essential. Though the last phrase "For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory" is not found in the gospels, it is a fitting declaration that all honour, power, and glory belongs to God alone. Whatever we pray is all about God. He closes with the final two snippets, "Forever" and "Amen." 

My Thoughts

This book is a powerful rebuttal against what the Prayer of Jabez stands for. Williams is spot on when he discerns the essence of the Jabez-Prayer and the Lord's Prayer. The latter is about God while the focus of the former is about ourselves. Moreover, the two verses in 1 Chronicles 4:10 have very little context as to why Jabez prayed that way. Even if I were to grant Wilkinson the benefit of the doubt, I am not so sure that laypersons would not treat the Jabez-Prayer like a magical incantation to tell God to do man's wishes. This reverses the DIY-mentality of the Jabez Prayer to helps us lean toward "Let God Decide" posture. This theme is consistent throughout the book. At every page, we train our minds and hearts to pray according to God's will. If readers can adjust their prayer focus away from self and more toward God, it would be several steps forward in our spiritual growth.

Some might ask: Is attacking the Prayer of Jabez a helpful stance? What about those who have positively benefitted from that book? I would answer: Hold the Jabez prayer on one hand but take this book using the other hand. There is no harm in praying from the teachings of both books. Perhaps, Williams' Prayer of Unwanting could be a good complement to Wilkinson's book. As for those who have not read Wilkinson's, I recommend they pay more attention to the Lord's Prayer. There is a lot more context in Williams's approach. Moreover, there is a section on "How and When to Pray the Lord's Prayer" at the end of the book which should spur our praying exercises. 

Prayer is an important spiritual discipline. Having another resource to keep us in a prayer posture is always a good thing. If there is any one reason to get this book, it is probably this.

Rev. Dr. David Williams is the author of several books, including Our Angry Eden, The Prayer of Unwanting, and his critically acclaimed debut novel, When the English Fall. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, WIRED, Religion News Service, and The Christian Century, among other outlets. He is a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and currently serves Poolesville Presbyterian Church, a small congregation in Maryland. Before becoming a pastor, Williams worked for ten years at the Aspen Institute. He lives in Annandale, Virginia.

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Broadleaf Books via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.