“Thy Will Be Done”

The phrase, “Thy Will Be Done” likely calls to our minds either the Lord’s prayer or Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. “Thy Will Be Done” sums up Jesus’ attitude and action towards the way of God. And “Thy Will Be Done” is the high calling He asks us to pursue. 

Although we are familiar with “Thy Will Be Done” as a New Testament passage, it first appears in a prophetic psalm. In Psalm 40, David said, “You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; you open my ears to listen.You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering. Then I said, “See, I have come; in the scroll it is written about me. I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me.” (Ps. 40:7,8)  

Hebrews 10:7-9 quotes this psalm as if Christ said these words. since Christ Himself both inspired this prophecy and acted in accordance with it. Knowing that God did not want more Old Testament type sacrifices, He came to do God’s will—to the uttermost. This is directly connected to His sacrificial death. 

So in the garden of Gethsemane, when facing the immediate prospect of the crucifixion and death for our sins, Jesus’ repeated prayer was for the will of God to be carried out: “He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done.’” (Matt. 26:42). And thus for us, and for the Father’s will, He went. 

So when he asks us to submit, fully submit, to the will of the Father, Jesus is asking us for the same devotion that He Himself has already fully shown. 

And so He taught us to pray, saying, “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 7:9,10) Let us not only learn to say, “Thy will be done,” — let us do it.