Asking God what His will is can quietly become another way of living for yourself—always scanning the horizon for the next big thing He has for you, while the world shapes you into its own image in the meantime. Romans 12:1–2 pushes back on that, calling us to something that starts not with where we’re going, but with what we’re willing to offer right where we are.
We’ve all looked at this world and thought, it just doesn’t seem like God’s will is being done. Underneath that thought is a deeper fear that God’s reserve of will and ability runs dry the way ours does. That fear is exactly what Jesus targets when He teaches us to pray “your will be done.”
Even after turning our lives over to Christ, we can still pray as though God were there to serve our wants and protect our plans. In Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Ask, seek, and knock,” raising a searching question for daily prayer: When we belong to Him, what should we be asking our Father to give?