My will be done

[Please note: ACIM passages quoted in this article reference the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) Edition.]

Several times the Course takes the famous line from the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done,” and turns it back on us:

And God Himself, Who knows that death is not your will, must say, “Thy will be done” because you think it is. (T-24.III.5)

God asks your mercy on His Son and on Himself. Deny Them not. They ask of you but that your will be done. (T-24.III.8)

You are but asked to let your will be done, and seek no longer for the things you do not want. (T-30.IV.7)

Your will be done! In Heaven as on earth this is forever true. (T-31.VI.4)

For God Himself has said, “Your will be done.” And it is done to you accordingly. (T-31.VI.4)

Your will be done, you holy child of God. (T-31.VI.7)

The truth in you remains as radiant as a star, as pure as light, as innocent as love itself. And you are worthy that your will be done! (T-31.VI.7)

Today let your will be done, and end forever the insane belief that it is hell in place of Heaven that you choose. (W-pI.73.8)

These quotes refer to one or both of two ideas. First, they refer to the fact that our power of choice is sovereign in our experience. If our will is for death, even God must stand aside and let death be our experience.

Second, and more profoundly, they refer to the idea that we need to let our true will be done. We need to let what we truly want come to the fore and be acted on. That is the meaning of the two passages above that explicitly say “let your will be done.” Just as we pray to God to let His Will be done, so God and Jesus turns to us and ask us to let our will be done.

The idea here is that we are putting a lid on our true desires, not letting them express themselves. What are our true desires? From the Course’s standpoint, they are all holy. We desire to love. We desire to selflessly give. We desire to forgive. We desire to be with God. We desire to be holy. Is it possible that those are our true desires, in contrast to the desires we typically identify with? And is it possible that we are bottling them up due to a misplaced allegiance to desires that seem natural and strong, but that do not really fit us?

This line came to me this morning while I was meditating. It occurred to me that the mind wandering I couldn’t seem to get out of was not my will; my real will was to be with God. When I focused on that, my meditation went much better.

So today I am practicing the line “My will be done.” If I have an upset or worry, I have been asking myself, “What is my real will here?” and then try to get in touch with a deeper will in me, one that exists beneath the will to protect my ego. What I find is that that deeper will is in fact always there. It’s not that hard to get in touch with it, at least to some degree. But it definitely is covered over, like some secret ambition that I have been suppressing for years for reasons that, when examined, never really make sense.