‘Thy will be done’—-The phrase as it is commonly used is blasphemy. Some awful possibility lies before us; we do everything in our power to avert it; we fail, and we finally say, having exhausted every other possibility, ‘thy will be done’. To say this implies at least two horrible presuppositions—first it means that God’s will is a dreadful thing to be avoided at all costs. And second it means we’ve tried everything we know to get our own will, and only when all that has failed we say ‘Well God, I can’t have my way. I suppose you better have yours.’
No, that is not what our Lord taught us to ask for, to come to God as a last resort, and say ‘alright, have it your own way.’ He lived and taught in the spirit of the man in the Psalms who cried out ‘I delight to do thy will, o my God.’ He means that you should say ‘I know that what you will is the finest and best thing I can possibly do. And for that reason, and because I love you, I want to do it. May it be done!’ ‘Thy will be done’ is never a phrase to sit down on, it is a phrase to stand up to. C.K. Barrett
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