Prayer of Unwanting

The Prayer of Unwanting

How the Lord's Prayer Helps Us Get Over Ourselves—
And Why That Might Be a Good Thing

David Williams
Broadleaf Books, 2025
ISBN 9798889833291

Softcover, 133 pp.
7.3 X 5.4 X 0.5 inches | 0.4 pounds

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 need: 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.

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.