Stop Chasing Your Will—Surrender to God’s Divine Plan for Your Life

What happens when you stop manifesting your desires and start praying for God’s will instead? Discover how true peace and purpose begin with surrender.

Who does God want you to become? Have you ever stopped and asked? When you pray, do you ask God to make you who you want to be — or do you ask that His will be done in your life?

Many people, when they pray, treat God like Santa Claus. They spend their entire prayer asking God to give them things from the long list of what they think will make them happy. Now, they do have a better chance of getting these things from God than Santa, because one is real and one is not — or, you may be saying to yourself that neither of them are real? If that is the case, I invite you to stop reading now because the rest of this essay isn’t going to make sense to you.

God will provide some of the specifics that we pray for. He will also withhold certain things. Why? Because He knows what is best for our highest good — we do not.

How many times have you set the intention to manifest something in your life, prayed, and got what you wanted — only to realize it wasn’t that great, or worse? If we’re honest with ourselves, we have all experienced this at some point.

When we use our minds to figure out life, it often falls short because we don’t know what we don’t know. We are feeling desires and making plans based on the information we consciously have available to us. Most life situations are highly nuanced with many moving parts and unseen connections to seemingly unrelated other aspects of life. Our limited minds cannot see all of this — the omnipresent Creator of the Universe can.

Before I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ and dedicated my life to serving God’s will over my own, I was heavily into studying and practicing metaphysics. I spent much time and dedication doing my best to master the Law of Attraction. I got pretty decent at it. I consciously manifested many specific things.

One of my biggest aha moments recognizing the flaws of hacking God’s systems to use my own will to manifest came when I manifested something very specific. I felt I wanted to find my life partner (not necessarily a wife, because I questioned the need for marriage at that time), so I applied what I had been studying for over a decade.

I sat for a period of time and searched my mind for everything I wanted my ideal woman to possess — everything from physical, to beliefs, hobbies, etc. Within a short while, I manifested her into my life. The way she came into my life is mind-blowing, but too long of a story for this writing. But we met and started dating. She checked all the boxes that I wrote down.

This woman did not become my life partner — but she did become a very good friend for a few years. Why? Because in that very long and extensive list, I forgot one very important item — sexual chemistry. Chemistry is a very mysterious concoction that is beyond most of our understanding. The list I created was not a formula for sexual chemistry.

Now I am married to a woman who does not possess most of the things on that list. We have an amazing chemistry in all areas and are in alignment in parenting values and the future we want to build. We didn’t need to compromise or cajole each other to be in alignment — we each showed up completely authentic and unapologetic, and our unity was a natural process. Not to say we don’t get frustrated with each other and experience tension — we do, and that is perfect because tension caused by polarity helps create chemistry.

I stopped asking God what kind of woman to bring me. I stopped asking Him to bring me a woman. My prayer switched to: “Lord, if it is Your will for me to be a husband and a father, I ask that You connect me with the soul that You have chosen.” And I accepted His will may be for me to be alone and childless — and I felt peace because it was my Father’s will.

My favorite example of this concept in the Bible is on the day of His coming crucifixion. Jesus said this prayer to Father God:

Matthew 26:36–39:
36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

We either have faith in God or we don’t. We can’t have faith when it’s convenient and force our own will when it’s not. We either trust that He is a good God, loves us unconditionally, and always has our highest good in His plan — or we doubt Him and trust our human minds instead. You can think you have faith, but your actions tell the truth of your deepest belief.

What if you stopped trying to create your life the way you think is best? Instead, what if you started praying to God that His will be done in every aspect of your life? What if you pray for Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit and empty you of your own will, desires, and perceived needs — and replace them with His?

In order to do this, we must learn how to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit within us. When we pray for God’s will to be done, He will guide us. We need to make space for His voice. We must learn how and practice slowing down our minds and making space for stillness in the midst of life’s busyness.

We cannot be guided by the Spirit while we are slaves to the ego. The ego demands certainty. To follow God’s will over our own, we must develop unwavering faith to enter the wilderness of uncertainty in our lives. We must be willing to allow our current selves to be deconstructed so a new you may be built in its place.

It is not all peace and tranquility when we follow God’s will. He must separate you from everything that is getting in the way of you becoming who He needs you to be — for Him to be able to use you for the Divine Purpose He individually designed you for.

If you’ve been spending the majority of your life serving your own will, those choices have shaped who you are today. God needs to change you. And as He changes you from within, your external life circumstances stay the same — your family, friends, job, home — stay the same… until it all changes. But there is a delay.

All of a sudden, you will begin feeling like a foreign alien in your own life. Those who you have known your whole life will feel like strangers. Places that felt comfortable will become unbearable.

If you can stay faithful and strong during this time in the wilderness, when you come out the other side you will experience greater joy, happiness, and peace than your former self could have possibly imagined.

God gave you life for an important purpose. He loves you more than any human ever could. He wants to use you to serve His will and make this world a more loving and harmonious place. He loves you so much that He gave you free will. You can use your free will to align with His will for your life, or you can continue to serve your own will, strengthening your ego.

The choice is yours.