Your will be done ....... (or ???)

We are exhorted as Christians to follow Christ’s example in saying to God: ‘not my will, but your will be done’.

I am beginning to suspect a hidden trap here. Let me explain:

Basically that the concept of ‘will’ in fact has two fairly separate components

a)      What I want or do not want to do

b)      Strength of purpose, will-power (nicely rendered in French by ‘force de l’âme’).

The correct Christian marriage of the two parts is, it seems to me: ‘willing what God wants to me do’ + the full strength my innate, God-given will-power (force de l’âme).

Almost certainly the correct marriage is only possible when ‘God’s will’ really is God’s will, perceived as such and consented to in the depths of the heart, and not imposed from outside. Yes, outside help may be required with the discernment, but the final yes/no must be a free movement of the individual soul. There is one possible exception; in the specific situation of religious obedience under a really professional elder, concerned to bring the disciple to real spiritual maturity. But for that’s the only exception, and then both the decision of obedience and the choice of elder must be free choices.

In any other combination of the two parts - which one sees too often, and I include myself in this for large chunks of my Christian life - and we chug along in a rather miserable third-gear.