Resting in Prayer...

[Quotes  from an article, "Sabbath Resting in God," by Ron Farr in Weavings, March/April 1993]

   "This sacred Sabbath stillness in which we let go of our physical and mental labors and rest our souls is a deep part of prayer. It originates out of the very fabric of God's nature, for, as we are told, God "rested on the seventh day" (Exod. 20:8). God rests. Jesus rests. Jesus invites us to rest. God commands us to rest. We need to rest. Yet how many of us actually find true rest?

   Sadly, even prayer for most of us is not rest. On the contrary, it is generally something we have to gear ourselves up to do, because in it we're usually problem-solving, decision-making, or working out our futures. Our prayer times are often just a continuation of the inner noise and struggle of our lives. Though personal struggles are frequently the starting point for prayer, it is clear that Jesus calls us to continue our descent into prayer to the place where we can truly "find rest for our souls."

   Prayer is not just a place of mental labor, but a place of release and rest - a kind of "portable Sabbath" in the words of Harvey Cox. The problem is, however, that though we inwardly long for such an inner Sabbath, it is no easy thing to rest and let go in the manner that Jesus calls us..... "It is in the spaciousness of our Sabbath silences that we begin to unwind and decompress. It is in these silences that our pores become unplugged and the numbness of our exhausting struggles drops away like the blinding scales that dropped from the eyes of Paul before he was baptized. It is in these silences that we take on different eyes - Sabbath eyes that are relaxed and open enough to find God in "being" as well as in "doing," eyes that can see the deep worth of each moment as it is, rather than always peering ahead to moments lying beyond the present that might be more "promising."

   "It is in these sacred Sabbath silences that we find our centers again, and touch upon the compassionate, life-giving Center of the Cosmos. Here we come to rest upon God's mercy like an autumn leaf near the river's edge that has come to rest gently upon the calm moving surface of the river's current.

   "The Hebrew term for "mercy" comes from the root word meaning "womb." In prayer, when we rest in God's mercy, we are resting ourselves just as we are in God's womb. Just as an unborn child rests in the womb of its mother and silently receives there an endless supply of nourishment, warmth, and protection, so when we in prayer let go and rest in God's mercy, we find that God enfolds us in the divine womb and there nourishes us, heals us, restores us, and gives birth to us again.

   "The Sabbath rest, however, is not just for our personal revival. Resting in God is not just for "me." God holds all creation in that mercy-womb, not just those who have made the descent of prayer. The more often we abandon ourselves to God's rest, the more space we give God to enter us and inwardly change us. God inevitably stirs us to bring God's rest to those who have no rest from loneliness and oppression. We Christians are ordinary people with needs and limited resources who are called by God to minister to others on the raw edges of life. We need the inner Sabbaths of prayer. We need to rest our souls periodically in the wellsprings of God's Spirit. A tree cannot stand in the storm without its roots embedded in the depths of the earth. We cannot stand in the storms of our lives and of our ministry to others without resting our roots deep in the healing silences of God."

 [For your reflection. Joseph+]