Submit to the Lord by seeking what he wants instead of what you want

By nature, humans pursue motives, desire ends, and employ means that differ from what God would in their place.³ This is seen in the common approach to religious practices. Instead of viewing religion as an open-minded search for counsel from God, seeking for what they should change about what they think or feel or do, too many people view religion as the search for what they already think, feel, and do.⁴

All who approach God will be taught better things to seek, along with why to do so and how to do so. Your desires will only match the Lord's to the extent that you have become like him in all other ways. Until then, the quality of your relationship with God can be measured by how often he asks you to do what you do not want to, and how intensely you do not want to do it. What you really think about the Lord is best demonstrated in your response to what you least want to hear from him. The greatest love to God is shown in the moments when it is most difficult to feel love from God. Those who truly submit to God relish moments that prove that they will obey when it is hardest.

While most professed Christians primarily seek God for help in obtaining their own desires,⁵ those who submit to God instead seek his direction and assistance in achieving his desires. God knows the path to all blessings, but those who only seek God for what they already desire are barely scratching the surface of the blessings that the Lord desires for his children. God knows of blessings better than what man can contrive,⁶ and these can only be obtained by those who seek God without preconceived notions of what his blessings might be.

Each person has the power to choose to follow Christ by willingly and fully pursuing and submitting to his purpose.⁷ Those who live the gospel actively seek the will of God.⁸ They ask what he wants early and often, consistently and diligently study the scriptures, and frequently reflect on their lives seeking feedback on how they can improve. They do not draw arbitrary distinctions between spiritual and temporal things in their lives, knowing that the will of God is for every moment of every day to be as good and purpose driven as it can be.

Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works. (Jacob 4:10)

How frequently do you seek God’s will, independent of your own? How do you feel on occasions when you realize that God’s will differs from your own? How do you respond to suggestions of how you could improve?

Those who serve God prefer God’s will to their own.⁹ Disciples of Christ dedicate themselves to his purpose.¹⁰ They follow the Lamb’s example without exception or reservation (see Revelation 14:4). While we are indeed commanded to ask God for those things which we need⁶³⁵ or desire,⁶³⁶ our requests are only effectual inasmuch as they align with the will and character of the Father and the Son.⁶³⁷

Do you mostly pray only when you want something? The gospel is not just a tool you deploy when convenient to you, but the demonstration of how to live and what to become in order to obtain the greatest joy. The way of life is a master, not a servant. God doesn’t exist to beckon to your requests like a genie, but to guide you in how and why to become like he is so that you can obtain what he has and enjoy what he does. Those who live the gospel fully do not just call on God to help them get what they want, or to help them when they are in distress, but seek and follow his will at all times and in all places.

Those who fully adopt and submit to the purpose of the Lord will enter into and abide in his rest⁶³⁸ and overcome the world.⁶³⁹ Those who insist on seeking their own desires will have to settle for far less.⁶⁴⁰