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Desiring God’s Will is the third book in Benner’s Spiritual Journey trilogy. The first book is Surrender to Lover (read the review). The second book is The Gift of Being Yourself (read the review).
Snapshot
Book Review Rating: 7/10
This Book Is:
- Written from a psychological perspective.
- About the connection between the will and desire/love.
- Helpful for people who feel tired of religion and are looking for a fresh encounter with God.
This Book Is Not:
- Written from a theological perspective.
- For those who are concerned with or not interested in the emotional and experiential side of faith.
My Takeaways from Desiring God’s Will:
- God cares about our motivations. It can be easy to measure our external actions against other people’s actions because they are visible. It is tempting to measure our spirituality by the number of times we attend church, read our Bible, or pray. These things aren’t necessarily bad, but part of what determines their value is our motivation for doing them. God wants us to act out of love, not willpower.
- Look for where God is working. It is important to build the habit of asking where God is working in our lives. Learning to pay attention is something that can be improved with practice. The prayer of Examen by St. Ignatius of Loyola is one way to do this.
My Critiques of Desiring God’s Will:
- The role of spiritual disciplines. I agree with Benner that the disciplines are not an end in themselves and that God cares about our motivation. The reality for most of us is that we regularly find ourselves doing things for the wrong reason, but with the desire to change our motivation. How does one change their motivation? In one sense, the answer is that we can’t, only God can. But there are things we can do to put ourselves in the appropriate posture for God to work. These are exactly what the spiritual disciplines are for. So claiming that God doesn’t want us acting out of willpower feels a bit misleading when that is exactly how to get where Benner says we need to go.
Summary – Desiring God’s Will
This book is an extension of the first two books. Once we surrender to God’s love and understand our identity and fulfillment in God’s Kingdom, we are able to choose God with our whole being not just our will.
How we decide can often be as important as what we decide. Willpower, determination and discipline are not enough in Christ-following. The close interconnection of will and desire means that if Christ is to have our will, he must first have our heart.
Desiring God’s Will page 14
Willfulness vs Willingness
Benner makes a distinction between willfulness and willingness. The will is useful for helping us complete unpleasant and undesirable tasks that need to be done. It would be a tragedy if following Jesus falls into that category. If we approach following Jesus with just our will, we will be left with a rigid and lifeless spirituality. If we can summon the will to consistently practice the spiritual disciplines, it will often lead to pride and completing the disciplines becomes an end in itself instead of the means of encountering God. It is love that transforms willfulness to willingness.
Willfulness is the deadly fruit of the kingdom of self. Willingness is the river of life flowing through the kingdom of God.
Desiring God’s Will page 31
Love and the Will in Desiring God
God pursues us with his great love. This love transforms us. We cannot love God out of our will alone, but we can be open to receiving God’s love. God does not desire our disciplines, but the actions that come out naturally from someone who has a deep and intimate relationship with God. This aligns well with what Dallas Willard also taught about spiritual disciplines (What are Spiritual Disciplines For?).
Without love, will becomes mechanical and loses spontaneity. Without love, will becomes rationalistic and moralistic. Without love, will replaces imagination with industry. Without love, will makes us boring and predictable and devoid of vitality.
Desiring God’s Will page 48
Attending to God’s Presence
We cannot know God’s will apart from his presence. It is inherently personal and relational. While we cannot change our will through our will, we can choose to pay attention to God’s presence. His presence is always with us, but we don’t always experience it. Once we begin to be aware of God’s presence, it becomes easier to be more and more aware. Benner describes Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach as examples of people in the past who wrote about their experience of growing in awareness of God in their everyday lives. Experiencing God begins with an act of intentional attention proceeded by letting go.
God’s presence draws us into God’s loving will. If we allow ourselves to be aware of divine presences it will change our willing. But it does require turning our attention toward God.
Desiring God’s Will page 61
The Way of the Cross
Suffering is an inevitable part of the Christian experience. Sometimes this suffering comes from our disordered desires and other times from external factors. The call to follow Jesus is a call to follow the way of the cross. The way of the cross is a path of surrender. The experiences of our lives can be viewed as little deaths and little resurrections. These moments are opportunities to meet God.
Taking up our cross is a allowing suffering to be a place of meeting God.
Desiring God’s Will page 95
Top Takeaways – Desiring God’s Will
God Cares About Our Motivation
My top takeaway from this book is that God cares about our motivation. It can be easy to measure our external actions against other people’s actions because they are visible. It is tempting to measure our spirituality by the number of times we attend church, read our Bible, or pray. These things aren’t necessarily bad, but part of what determines their value is our motivation for doing them. God wants us to act out of love, not willpower.
Where is God in this?
The next takeaway is the importance of building the habit of asking where God is working in our lives. Learning to pay attention is something that can be improved with practice. The prayer of Examen by St. Ignatius of Loyola is one way to do this. Each night, reflect on your day and think about where you saw God working and where you felt his absence. Doing this day after day helps build the habit of seeing things during the day and not just when reflecting.
There are times when you see and feel God working, which St. Ignatius calls consolations. There are other times where we feel out of alignments with what God is doing, which he calls desolations. These can be due to our disordered desires or a nudge from God to go in another direction.
Critique – Desiring God’s Will
The Role of Spiritual Disciplines in Desiring God’s Will
The main critique of this book is the role of spiritual disciplines. I agree with Benner that the disciplines are not an end in themselves and that God cares about our motivation. The reality for most of us is that we regularly find ourselves doing things for the wrong reason, but with the desire to change our motivation. How does one change their motivation? In one sense, the answer is that we can’t, only God can. But there are things we can do to put ourselves in the appropriate posture for God to work. These are exactly what the spiritual disciplines are for. So claiming that God doesn’t want us acting out of willpower feels a bit misleading when that is exactly how to get where Benner says we need to go.
Also, the lived reality of most of us is likely going to be a consistent cycle of balancing both willpower and love. Sometimes more love and sometimes more willpower. Benner seems more idealistic about it.
Evaluation – Desiring God’s Will
This book provides a helpful perspective about the relationship between will and desire and how to conform our will to God’s will through love. Like the other books in the series, this book is unique because of the emphasis on our will, desire, and emotions from a psychological perspective. Some readers may find this helpful, others may be concerned about it.
The book includes helpful exercises for reflection at the end of each chapter as well as discussion guides in an appendix for use in a group setting. This book is short but powerful. It may challenge you to rethink aspects of your spirituality and how you relate to God.
Conclusion
At Faithful Intellect, our goal with book reviews is to explore the ideas and implications of the author and also share the top takeaways and critiques that shape our thinking. We hope that you will benefit from these insights even if you aren’t able to read the book yourself.
Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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Books:
- Surrender to Love (https://amzn.to/3ShgiG7)
- The Gift of Being Yourself (https://amzn.to/3u1xje1)
- Desiring God’s Will (https://amzn.to/47yIg4C)
Also take a look at our Resources page for what has influenced our thinking.
Take a look at our other Blog posts for articles engaging culture with faith and reason.
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