If the goal of prayer is to delight in God’s presence and develop deeper communion with Him, few of us want to settle for a one-sided relationship. At some point in our prayer journey, we’ll want to actually hear from Him. This is what Scripture calls discernment. And while prayer is about delighting in our personal relationship with God by sharing our hearts with Him, it’s also about learning His heart for us and for those around us.

When we pray to discern God’s heart, we’re asking to know God’s will. But we’re also asking that God would form and shape us into the kinds of people who are actually capable of accomplishing it. This means discerning God’s heart is less about finding the right path when faced with a decision and more about tuning our hearts and desires to God’s heart and desires. This is partly what Jesus means when He tells His disciples to pray, “Your Kingdom come Your will be done…” (Matt. 6:10). Discerning God’s heart is about surrendering our will to God’s. We want His will, not ours, to be done in our lives, in the lives of those around us, and in our world. Praying this way is about alignment. We want to bend our desires to God’s desires. And not just for ourselves.

We want to develop the heart God has for those around us as well. We want to hear from God, we want to respond to His voice, and we want to become people who carry out His will.