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The Prayer of Unwanting: How the Lord's Prayer Helps Us Get Over Ourselves--and Why That Might Be a Good Thing
An astute, lively book about the Lord's Prayer--the ancient Christian prayer that helps us get over ourselves, which is sometimes exactly what we didn't know we needed.
Sometimes we imagine prayer as a magical incantation--a way to change our circumstances. We try to pray our way toward success, safety, health, or love. But what if true prayer is more about undoing our desires for power and profit than indulging them? What if the purpose of prayer isn't to give us what we want but to change the very heart of our wanting?
Novelist and pastor David Williams leads us toward a new encounter with the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. Prayed through millennia by believers in groups and alone, the Lord's Prayer speaks precisely to our age. Jesus taught his followers this prayer for a reason, and this same prayer rings true to those of us with a hunch that our desires are being endlessly manufactured, manipulated, and managed. If we are to be good little consumers, our hunger must be endless. We want because we are afraid of not having enough. We want because we feel compelled to have more than our neighbor. We want power over others. Our broken wanting can break the world. So Jesus gave us the prayer we one that repairs and reorients our longings.
With stories from scripture, whimsical anecdotes, and pastoral wisdom, Williams guides us into profound interaction with each line of the Lord's Prayer. Questions and ideas for ways to experience the Lord's Prayer can facilitate and deepen group conversation and individual prayer. There's power in the Lord's Prayer, Williams testifies, even if it's a power we have yet to understand.
Sometimes we imagine prayer as a magical incantation--a way to change our circumstances. We try to pray our way toward success, safety, health, or love. But what if true prayer is more about undoing our desires for power and profit than indulging them? What if the purpose of prayer isn't to give us what we want but to change the very heart of our wanting?
Novelist and pastor David Williams leads us toward a new encounter with the prayer Jesus taught us to pray. Prayed through millennia by believers in groups and alone, the Lord's Prayer speaks precisely to our age. Jesus taught his followers this prayer for a reason, and this same prayer rings true to those of us with a hunch that our desires are being endlessly manufactured, manipulated, and managed. If we are to be good little consumers, our hunger must be endless. We want because we are afraid of not having enough. We want because we feel compelled to have more than our neighbor. We want power over others. Our broken wanting can break the world. So Jesus gave us the prayer we one that repairs and reorients our longings.
With stories from scripture, whimsical anecdotes, and pastoral wisdom, Williams guides us into profound interaction with each line of the Lord's Prayer. Questions and ideas for ways to experience the Lord's Prayer can facilitate and deepen group conversation and individual prayer. There's power in the Lord's Prayer, Williams testifies, even if it's a power we have yet to understand.
133 pages, Paperback
Published February 11, 2025
2 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
David Williams
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 28, 2025
A gem of a little book. THE PRAYER OF UNWANTING explores the Lord’s Prayer—something so familiar that it can easily become rote—and invites readers to discover and ponder it anew. Line by line, Williams contextualizes the Lord’s Prayer within its linguistic origins (fear not, this is done in a far more entertaining way than it sounds) and, quite simply, the way Jesus taught. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide on how to pray this prayer “correctly,” you won’t find it here. Instead, Williams offers readers a chance to dust off the sheer familiarity of the prayer and engage with it in ways that might be very new.
Central to the “unwanting” angle is this: “Here is a prayer that does not offer to give us what we want but instead changes the heart of our wanting” (p. 110). For example, in the “give us this day our daily bread” chapter, we’re asked to consider: What do we really need? In the “deliver us from evil” chapter, we’re invited to look at the evil within ourselves, the “shadow of our souls,” more than the evils from others—hard swallow, right?
This small text lends itself to slow, careful reading—maybe a chapter a day. Petite, profound, accessible, friendly, and relevant. And giftable! I already have a couple people in mind I think will enjoy it.
Highly recommended.
Central to the “unwanting” angle is this: “Here is a prayer that does not offer to give us what we want but instead changes the heart of our wanting” (p. 110). For example, in the “give us this day our daily bread” chapter, we’re asked to consider: What do we really need? In the “deliver us from evil” chapter, we’re invited to look at the evil within ourselves, the “shadow of our souls,” more than the evils from others—hard swallow, right?
This small text lends itself to slow, careful reading—maybe a chapter a day. Petite, profound, accessible, friendly, and relevant. And giftable! I already have a couple people in mind I think will enjoy it.
Highly recommended.
January 22, 2025
David Williams' “The Prayer of Unwanting" is an extraordinary book that is profound, practical, wise, and nurturing. The author takes us through each phrase of the Lord's Prayer in short, revelatory chapters that encourage the reader to internalize the astonishing implications of these all too familiar words. Readers may be surprised by some of his interpretations, but there is no dogmatism here, just the honest attempts of a superb scholar to share what he has discovered in his own encounters with the prayer. Rev. Williams is amazingly adroit at shifting tone, language, and technique as he seeks to form a bond with his readers and guide them on a transformative experience with Jesus's words. He employs all of his experiences as a father, a Biblical scholar, a suburban child, a voracious reader, and a devoted pastor to take his readers on an emotional and spiritual journey that is relatable and challenging, mysterious and compelling. His humility and self-deprecating humor, his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew and the Bible, his sensitivity to language, and his ability to mix down-to-earth accessible prose with poetic language and memorable concrete expressions of complex ideas make his vision real and accessible.
I found myself transfixed by his cogent explanations of how the plea for forgiveness is really a requirement that we ask to be judged by the same standards we apply to others. Similarly his insistence that our daily bread request should be read as a call to know the difference between what is necessary to live a good life and what are the seductions of a consumer focused economy seemed extremely insightful and certainly reinforced the book’s title. His striking comments about eternity and heaven and holiness and evil and the resurrection all changed my understandings of these huge concepts.
Rev. Williams manages to effortlessly shift from folksy personal anecdotes to a discussion of an obscure book by a German executioner to challenging and complicated explications of Biblical text and the Gospels and to all kinds of other experiences and ideas and in so doing creates a consistently engaging and lively conversation with his readers. He is your kind neighbor who unstintingly gives you counsel and support and love. And he tells some wonderfully funny and frightening and compelling stories in the process.
His view of the Lord's Prayer is all the more compelling because of the consistency of vision with which he approaches the text: humility, openness, compassion, forgiveness, acknowledgement of both our limitations and our place in a divine reality bigger than ourselves,and a desire to connect meaningfully with God and Jesus and a better self are at the heart of what he finds in the prayer….and what he seeks to share with his audience.
And he is simply a delightful stylist whose precise, careful language and transparent concern with being understood are omnipresent. That he provides discussion questions and a generous description of his own path to keeping the prayer alive at the end of the book is indicative of the depth of his commitment to helping others heal. His wisdom and compassion comfort and encourage us even while he insists that we go beyond our daily lives to find the infinite and overwhelming truths that are available to us in this ancient, simple prayer.
I found myself transfixed by his cogent explanations of how the plea for forgiveness is really a requirement that we ask to be judged by the same standards we apply to others. Similarly his insistence that our daily bread request should be read as a call to know the difference between what is necessary to live a good life and what are the seductions of a consumer focused economy seemed extremely insightful and certainly reinforced the book’s title. His striking comments about eternity and heaven and holiness and evil and the resurrection all changed my understandings of these huge concepts.
Rev. Williams manages to effortlessly shift from folksy personal anecdotes to a discussion of an obscure book by a German executioner to challenging and complicated explications of Biblical text and the Gospels and to all kinds of other experiences and ideas and in so doing creates a consistently engaging and lively conversation with his readers. He is your kind neighbor who unstintingly gives you counsel and support and love. And he tells some wonderfully funny and frightening and compelling stories in the process.
His view of the Lord's Prayer is all the more compelling because of the consistency of vision with which he approaches the text: humility, openness, compassion, forgiveness, acknowledgement of both our limitations and our place in a divine reality bigger than ourselves,and a desire to connect meaningfully with God and Jesus and a better self are at the heart of what he finds in the prayer….and what he seeks to share with his audience.
And he is simply a delightful stylist whose precise, careful language and transparent concern with being understood are omnipresent. That he provides discussion questions and a generous description of his own path to keeping the prayer alive at the end of the book is indicative of the depth of his commitment to helping others heal. His wisdom and compassion comfort and encourage us even while he insists that we go beyond our daily lives to find the infinite and overwhelming truths that are available to us in this ancient, simple prayer.
January 13, 2025
This book is not your typical Bible study style. The author breaks down the Lord's Prayer connecting the biblical context of the day and original language to modern day context. At times I thought Williams was getting off topic with his modern day analogies, but then he would bring it back to the Sermon on the Mount. I didn't always make the connection between Williams modern analogy with the biblical content, which is why I only gave this book three stars. Lastly, I almost stopped reading after the last chapter, but discovered there was another section where Williams gave tips on how to pray the Lord's Prayer so that it doesn't become rote, stays fresh and keeps its meaning. This last section was the best part. Had I stopped at what I thought was the end of the book, I would have missed out on this little nugget of information. It would be like leaving the dinner table, only to find out later there was dessert and you missed it.
July 9, 2025
David Williams truly gives us a gem with The Prayer of Unwanting. He goes through the Lord's prayer, line by line, in a way that reorients our thinking back to scripture and off of ourselves. It;s everything we didn't know we needed and yet exactly what we should task ourselves in all areas of our lives. Highly highly recommend this.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*
March 28, 2025
A look at the Lord's Prayer, phrase by phrase. Good way to renew your prayer life by thinking about each part of the prayer instead of just reciting something you've memorized. Recommend it!
January 26, 2025
The author's idea of changing the heart of our wanting sounds so appealing. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Publish date: Feb 11, 2025.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews