Jesus prayed “Your will be done” at the end of his struggle with God in Gethsemane, as a resolution to all that had gone before, including a clear request for another way out. I have become convinced that the phrase “Your will be done” belongs at the end of my prayers, not at the beginning. If I begin with that qualifier I am tempted to edit my prayers, to suppress my desires, to resign myself to whatever happens. I thus cut short what God wants from me: that I make known my requests, and in so doing make known my self.
