“Thy will be done” is a phrase used by Jesus Christ when He was praying to His Father in Heaven in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking the Father to remove the cup, or suffering, from Him. The Savior knew it had to be done so even when His suffering intensified, He willingly submitted to Heavenly Father’s will. In our own personal prayers, we may have used this phrase as a way of submitting our wills to the Father but we need to use this phrase with caution. Here are 3 reasons why saying “thy will be done” can be dangerous.
When we choose to leave it all up to God and do nothing. When we are faced with a difficult situation, we sometimes think that it is all God’s will and He will make it better in His own due time so we say, “Thy will be done”. While it is true that sometimes God puts us in a difficult situation for our growth and development, He does not want us to idle away our time and do nothing about it. Waiting for God to take away our difficult circumstances is not what He wants for us. What He really wants us to do is to determine how we can make our situation better, learn from our experiences, increase our faith, and trust that He will help us as we make conscious efforts to rise through our difficulties.
When we don’t take accountability for our actions. Some difficulties in our lives come as a direct result of disobedience or unwise choices we have made. Saying “Thy will be done” in this kind of situation is dangerous because it is not actually because of God’s will that we are in a difficult situation. It will not only lead us to believing that we did not do anything wrong but will also rob us of the opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness. God’s will in this situation is for us to acknowledge what we did wrong, repent, and resolve to not repeat the same mistake again.
When we have not done our best yet. When we fail at something, we may be tempted to think that maybe it’s just not for us and it is God’s will, so we just let it be. Sometimes saying “Thy will be done” in this situation can put us at ease. But if we have not really done our best yet to achieve this goal, saying “Thy will be done” is just an excuse we use to escape an unfulfilled goal. Many young adults use this to escape the dating and marriage discussion, thinking that maybe it is God’s will that they are not dating or marrying yet. While it is true that sometimes it is God’s will, some young adults have not done their best yet in finding a potential eternal companion. Saying “Thy will be done” when we haven’t exhausted all our resources can diminish our desire to fulfill our goal, thinking that we can’t do anything about it since it is already God’s will.
The saying “when we do our best, God will do the rest” may be a cliché to some, but when we truly stretch ourselves to our full potential, God will magnify our efforts and do the rest. God’s will is that we do all that we can and He will provide a way for us to accomplish our goals.
We are all counseled to be submissive as a little child to God’s will but when we do so, may we always remember to do it when we have already done our part in the work and learned what He wants us to learn in the process.
