Resting Prayer

“So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God.” Heb 4:9

The Thanksgiving holiday is often a very busy time: celebrating with family, church services, eating, watching sports, shopping, Christmas decorations, winterizing and . . . eating. By Sunday night many of us are actually thinking how nice it might be just to sit (maybe with a slice of pumpkin pie on our knee!). You might be familiar with an old hymn that has the refrain: 

 “Jesus, I am resting, resting

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.”

Today you are invited to rest. In fact God is calling you into a Sabbath rest! “It remains open for some to enter it”, writes the author of the letter to the Hebrews. A rest for God’s children exists but it has to be sought after and walked into. What is fascinating is that author Henri Nouwen remarks that a literal translation of the phrase “pray always” is “come to rest”. So we have this Biblical “resting prayer” that beckons us. Jesus knew this rest, He lived it out. But how do we enter into this resting prayer? Our tendency is either to take firm control and initiate something or to avoid the subject and do nothing. This form of prayer seeks to resist this tendency in order to draw closer to God.

What would it be like to find a place, maybe it is your church or a quiet spot at home, and just tell God you are there to listen and be with Him – no agenda! Eugene Peterson, the author of the Message Bible, calls this state the “middle voice”. The active voice is when we take action, the passive voice is when we receive the action of another, but in the middle voice we both act and are acted upon. It is an interesting concept and probably a practice that is not readily experienced. Try it, enter in. It is helpful because it seeks to ward off the danger of manipulation. Here our hands are open to God in a state of holy leisure where “rest” is productive. With this perspective notice how this form of contemplative prayer becomes a vehicle provided by God to find rest in Him. In this secret place we find rest for our soul and new strength.