We say we want God’s will. We sing about it. We preach it. We pray it. But if we’re being honest — brutally honest — we usually want God’s will only if it aligns with ours. The moment His will calls us out of our comfort zone, into obedience that might cost us our ambitions, relationships, or conveniences, we wince. We resist. We delay. We negotiate.
And then we wonder why there’s no power in our lives or our churches.
The ouch factor
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Let’s face it: many seeker-sensitive churches are full because they tell us what we want to hear — not what we need to hear. They package God’s love like a feel-good brand and edit out the call to die to self. But Jesus didn’t say, “Follow Me and I’ll grant all your dreams.” He said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
That’s not a message that draws crowds unless the Holy Spirit is doing the drawing. It’s painful. It’s humbling. It puts to death the idol of self-will.
Can we trust God’s will?
Do we truly believe that God can do anything? Not just in theory, but in our day-to-day decisions?
Do we truly believe His will is perfect — so perfect, in fact, that ours cannot possibly improve upon it? That He knows what we don’t, sees what we can’t, and always has our best in mind, even when His answers to our prayers feel like silence, delay, or denial?
If we’re praying with clenched fists, trying to get God to conform to our desires, then we’re not praying — we’re lobbying!
And that’s not faith. That’s manipulation.
Fear: The quiet saboteur
Why don’t we truly want God’s will?
Maybe it’s fear.
We’re afraid that God’s plan will cost us something we love too much to lay down. Afraid He might ask us to forgive someone we’d rather keep resenting. Afraid He’ll call us to serve when we just want to be noticed. Afraid He’ll break our heart only to rebuild it His way.
We’re scared that if we surrender, God might not give us what we want. But here’s the truth: sometimes what we want is exactly what would destroy us if God granted it.
Thank God for unanswered prayers.
A better way
What if we stopped trying to fit God into our plan and let Him shape us for His? What if our greatest joy was not in having our way, but in walking with Him — even when the path is painful, unpopular, or slow?
That kind of surrender doesn’t come naturally. It requires prayer, Scripture, counsel, and sometimes, tears. But it’s the only path to peace that passes understanding.
God’s will may not always be “safe” — but it is always good.
Let’s stop asking God to bless our will. Let’s start asking Him to bend our will to His.
Because in the end, the greatest tragedy isn’t that we didn’t get what we wanted. It’s that we never fully wanted His plans for our lives and the divine destiny that He had for us.
Jerry McGlothlin serves as the CEO of Special Guests, a publicity agency known for representing guests who are dedicated to helping preserve and advance our Constitutional Republic, and maintaining a Judeo-Christian ethic.
