A Prayer

Today’s prayer is by George Matheson. It comes out of the ideas given to us in Romans chapter 8. I appreciate the way he speaks about “unrest” and “rest” at the end of his prayer. Unrest isn’t necessarily sinful. It isn’t always the result of unholy discontent. At times, unrest comes from the disquiet we feel in this fallen world, the sense we have that all is not as it should be.

My Father, I have moments of deep unrest - moments when I know not what to ask by reason of the very excess of my wants. I have in these hours no words for you, no conscious prayers for you. My cry seems purely worldly; I want only the wings of a dove that I may flee away…But you know what I ask, O my God. You know the name of that need which lies beneath my speechless groan. You know that, because I am made in your image, I can find rest only in what gives rest to you; therefore you have counted my unrest unto me for righteousness, and have called my groaning your Spirit’s prayer.

Amen.

-George Matheson