Seek Ye First: When God Plans Your Life Better Than You Can

What if the safest move is surrender? We share a raw, early-morning story about walking away from a comfortable role after a quiet spiritual nudge, and how Matthew 6 began to steer every choice that followed. The salary was solid, the title looked good, but something inside kept saying, Make your treasure higher. That shift set off months of interviews, near-misses, and closed doors that felt confusing—until timing snapped into place with a layoff, a generous severance, and three dream conversations at once. No drama, no burned bridges, just a sense that God had been arranging what we were trying to control.

We get honest about the masters that pull at us: fear masquerading as wisdom, money masquerading as worth, control masquerading as safety. The “eye single” promise moved from verse to anchor, bringing calm we couldn’t manufacture. We talk through the daily practices that changed our capacity—prayer that wasn’t performative, scripture that read us back, service that stretched us without breaking us, even starting an addiction recovery class that felt risky until it didn’t. Those habits didn’t delay progress; they multiplied it.

This conversation is for anyone deciding between predictable security and a step of faith. You’ll hear how pruning motives made space for better doors, how “consider the lilies” turns worry into trust, and why seeking the kingdom first isn’t naïve—it’s the smartest way to live when outcomes are bigger than your plans. If you’re navigating a career shift, financial pressure, or just an inner restlessness, come sit with us in that tension and see what opens when God sets the timeline.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s weighing a big decision, and leave a review with the one verse or line that stuck with you. Your stories help the Lil Flock grow.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose Of The Show

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Welcome to Hear Him Kill You with Morgan and Joel. This podcast is for those who are imperfect and rough around the edges, but are still wanting to come under Christ. Essentially, it's for everyone. So join us to get yourself out of the mental wire, find meaning and emotion, and leave that behind. This is where we hear him to be healed. Welcome back, Lil Flock. What a great day. It's 7 a.m. right now for me. Just got back from the gym. Couldn't really sleep, so I decided to go to the gym in the wee hours of the morning. And then because I have still have so much time, um, I decided to do this podcast. Um, this is something that has been the story I'm gonna tell you ha has happened over the last three months. Four four or five months, actually, now that

Prompt To Record And Matthew 6

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I think about it. And I think it's important to tell the stories where Christ and our Heavenly Father are touching our lives, that they're interjecting themselves, making their presence known. Um, I think we sometimes get stuck in the trap that like God only interacted with the people from thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago. And I think it's important that we recognize God and keep a record of the things that He's done for us. It's kind of like we are trying to create our scripture stories when we do so. And I think it's really important. And the reason why I felt prompted to do this is I was reading Matthew 6. Um, this part of the scripture has always like popped up in my life and always resonated more and more in my life. And I'll kind of tell you why as I tell this story. So back in November, um, I I I worked at a company called Dental Intelligence. I was working as an account executive, and I was just like, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. I am sick of this job, I'm not liking it. And I actually had very little reason. Um, I was making a great salary, I was doing really well, and it didn't make sense for me to necessarily leave. Like it wasn't like the smart thing to do, but I felt super strongly about it. And I usually don't feel like how should I say, like, I don't always feel like strong, strong impressions. Usually I feel like this seems right, it seems like a good thing to do, so I'm gonna do it, and usually it works out. And so for me to feel this way was actually somewhat new.

Leaving A Good Job On A Nudge

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And and I realized when I read this scripture, um, so I'm gonna start off with reading Matthew 6, 19 through 21, and it says, Lay up not for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and still, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor still. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also. And the reason I this scripture like automatically pointed me back to this time where I was like, I'm not loving my job, I want to like not do this anymore, is I was I was realizing in my life at this time that there was a lot of things I was treasuring up before God. Like I was I was really putting a lot of value on the treasures of earth, whether that was money, job security, friends, time to hobbies and activities and and leaving very little time for for my heavenly father. And it was right around this time where there was a big switch in my life, um, where I felt like I wanted to get back to giving God more of my time and really just like being closer to him, right? Like I felt like I was like, it wasn't that I was mad at him or anything, but I just wasn't like, I'm gonna go do my own thing. Like, I'm not gonna do anything bad, but like I'm definitely not gonna like be as diligent as I as I would like. And I think it was because of this switch that I was starting to just be more diligent, like like I was saying, and that I really felt the spirit was able to enter into my life and just speak with me, get real with me, like like you're not loving this. It's kind of interesting. Like, I always think of like the term from the paracle parable of the prodigal son where it says he turned onto himself. And I'm like, man, there's so many times where I like have to turn onto myself and just be like, Morgan, what the heck are you doing? Like, it's time for you to return. It's time for you to be more diligent and just be who God wants you to be. Like, stop wallowing with the pigs, you know. So, because of this, I started looking for um a new job. I I started interviewing and um and end up putting job applications. I opened up my LinkedIn to for recruiters to reach out. Um, yeah, and like nothing externally was really wrong. Like, I'd actually been promoted um just a year before to this position as well. Or not even a few months, I had just been promoted to this new position.

Eye Single To God And Inner Peace

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But internally I could tell something was wrong. And this is where the scripture from Matthew, where it says, the light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. A lot of a lot of times during this process, I was calm. Like never once did I was I worried that things wouldn't work out. And I knew it was because for the first time in a while, my eye was completely single to what I felt like Heavenly Father wanted me to do. And I think when we do that, our bodies are full of light, full of peace, full of the goodness of God. Everything, every blessing he can give us, he will give us when we're fully aligned with him. And often that light comes as promptings, quiet directions, subtle nudges, emotional stability, hopefulness for the future, creativity, like so many things. And once again, I still didn't fully understand why I needed to do this, but it was really nice to see how God was working with me, be like, be calm and just keep taking one more step at a time. And so that's what I kept doing. But something really interesting happened during this part. There became a really confusing part

Near-Offers, Closed Doors, And Confusion

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because I felt like I needed to find a new job and I needed to leave. And what would happen over the next couple of months? I had this happen like three or four times where I would get a job or I would be interviewed for a job I was really excited about. And I would get all the way to the last round of the interview, nothing. I wouldn't get it. Or I would get offer a job interview and I would just, or a job. Like I got two or three jobs where I was offered to take it, and I was like, I don't, I don't feel good about this. Great money. Like, like it should have made sense. It should have been like an easy choice to take those jobs. And or like there was one where I I really wanted it and like last interview did a like a sales performance test, and they're like, Oh, you did amazing. We really want our CEO wants to talk to you. And then a few days, like, hey, we closed down the we closed down the job opportunity. Like, we're not gonna hire for that right now. Um and I was like, what the heck? And so so I just kept kept going. And this scripture, the in the next part, um, Matthew 6 23, really emphasizes this part in this journey. It says if but but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? And I'm not saying like this was like evil things or bad things, but I uh and this kind of points to backward to like where my focus was, where it's like my my focus at my new job had become like money or control or like all these other things. And and I realized that that the more that we focus away from God and we really begin to emphasize the fear in our lives, where like I'm trying to not get hurt, I'm not trying, I'm I don't want to be poor, or like just all these things that like make us fearful of the future actually diminishes the light within us or God's light. Or as we try to like exert more control over every circumstance of our lives, as if like we do have good full control, like the only person that has full control over anything in our lives is our Heavenly Father. But when we say I'm gonna try to take control of it, it's literally cutting him out. Like, I will make sure I am secure, I'll make sure I'm loved, I'll make sure I'm doing what's right, I'll make sure and like there's a good point, there's a good part. Like, I think it's great to go out and get what you want, but sometimes when that becomes when it could instead of like going to God, be like, Heavenly Father, like help me to have more control, like or can you help me to control these parts of my

Masters Of Fear, Money, And Control

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life? Or I need to make X amount of money so I can survive, but also do the things that you need me to do, like have a family, like provide for others, pay my tithing, like all these different things, right? And that's what I realized as I was going through this confusing part. Like sometimes I was focusing on jobs primarily for the money or for the type of lifestyle it could give me, or and not really thinking, like, is this would this keep me close to my Hemley Father? Like, if I got this job, would it bring me closer to him? And obviously, I would always come back around where I'm like, I yeah, I don't feel good about this, but a lot of times the excitement wasn't wasn't built upon keeping my eyes single to my Hemley Father. And so I don't know what those other jobs or paths would have taken me down, but I do feel like Hemley Father was helping to close those doors until the right opportunity, the one that would keep me most aligned with him, would come into effect. And and I there there was definitely times where I would come back to work and I'd be like, do I take something safer? Like, do I just like stay here? Like, do I just find something where I'm making enough money, but it's not really what I want to do? Do I just forget about like interviewing and just stay where I'm at and like disregard everything that like God is trying to do or prompting me to do? Do I really trust God and what he wants me to do, even though it seems like it's not working out, but I feel prompted to do it? Or do I trust in what I already have, the job, the security, um, where I have control, where I have predictability, where it's not risky. And this is where like verse 24 from chapter six comes in. It says, No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he'll hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And it hit me like there's so many things in my life that sometimes I try to serve, like they become the guiding thing in my life. Like, how often have I let like my fear of of failure be my driving or my master who I bend my will to? Or how often have I like sought money because it gives me validation that I'm smart enough, that I'm that I'm good enough, that I'm successful enough, or that I

Daily Habits, Service, And New Strength

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can show that like I'm better than others? Like I s or how often have I like not taken a step of faith because I wanted more security rather than I wanted to risk it and truly step into the arms of my savior. I can't tell you how many times I've chosen security over God, or how many times I have chosen to control a situation rather than just let God do his thing. Let him act upon the situation that I'm dealing with. And I'm just I learned through this that like there's a lot of masters out there, but only one truly puts all the pieces into place and makes sure that everything is done for you good, for your good. And that's our Heavenly Father. When he becomes our master, when we choose to make him our master, we give him the ultimate gift. The only thing he doesn't have is us, our agency. And so I finally got to the point where I was like, okay, fine, I'm gonna keep looking. I don't care how long it takes until I find the right thing for me. And like I said, during this time, I at the towards the beginning of this process, I had really like committed myself back to the gospel. There's so many things that I was finally doing that I felt like I'd been putting off or not dedicating time to. And so all during these three, four months that I was looking for a new job where I felt prompted and like those, I kept those habits. And I really think those habits helped fuel this journey. I was praying more, I was having more spiritual experiences, I was learning way more out of the scriptures than I'd ever had before. And I was also dedicating way more time to serving others and those around me. Like, like one thing that's been a huge blessing during this time is like, even though I've been busier and I had didn't not felt any overwhelmed. Like I was working a full-time job,

Three Dream Roles And A Layoff

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I'm taking a college class right now, and then I decided to start a dediction recovery class for my ward, for our elder squorum. And I'd done this in other wards previous, but I kind of been hesitant to do this for our current word. I just didn't know how people would respond to it. But once again, it was like one of those things is like the more I tried to give my time back to God, the more reassurance he gave me, even though it was a sacrifice to do some of these things. And this is where chapter verse 25 comes in and says, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor let your body, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? I felt like for so long prior to this experience, that was my whole like purpose of living. I was like, I'm gonna take thought for my life. Like, I'm I'm gonna control this. I'm like, a boy's gotta eat, so I'm gonna make sure like I go out there and make the money and have the things that I need to be happy. Or like I was just so focused on this temporal experience. And I was just letting every little part of my life that wasn't connected to God or I wasn't allowing him to influence those parts of my life just be pushed away, you know? I allow it, I allowed it to push push him away. And so finally, during this whole experience, even though I was interviewing, I was doing more than I've ever done before, I felt like I had all the time in the world because I was finally giving that time to him. And I think that is so important when we are in the middle of the middle of a struggle or we're pursuing something we don't understand. I think God, I think sometimes we get so caught up in trying to do the perfect thing rather than just do a thing. And I think God rewards movement in the place

Providence, Severance, And Perspective

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of perfect movement or perfect practice. And so I think when you're in the middle of something hard, dedicate more to the Lord. I know that sounds like counterintuitive, but in this experience, it really proved to be incredible. And then this happened. So I come out of Christmas, so beginning of January, and I had three back-to-back job opportunities that I was excited about. Any one of these three was pretty much a dream job for me. I had one where I wanted to be an SDR manager, I had one where I'd be working for a dental AI company. Well, two of them were actually for dental AI companies. I just was like, this is these are all the things I want. Like, where were all these experiences prior? Like, because I had I had other ones prior that I was excited about, but none of them as excited as these three. Like, I wanted them so bad. Um and I and one of them I'd actually ghosted the CR. I had an interview with the CRO, and I accidentally ghosted it, and I was like, Well, that job opportunity is gone. I didn't even decide to reach back out. For some reason, the recruiter reached back out to me. She's like, Hey, are you still interested in this? I was like, Yeah, I thought you guys had written me off months ago. And I started up that interview process, and so two or three weeks after getting these three job interviews, I was at the last round for for all three. And then I get a phone call from my from my current manager at Dental Intelligence telling me I was being laid off from my job. Literally, I was weeks, weeks away from quitting. I didn't have a firm job nailed down, but I knew it was coming. Um, because I had great references. I had people who worked at those companies who were like vouching for me. So I knew out of these three, there was no way a job couldn't come out of it. Like I was that sure. Like, and I don't know if it was like

Consider The Lilies: Practical Faith

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like I was just confident in myself, or it was like God's like, you're gonna get a job, don't worry. And I get laid off. And with this layoff came a huge severance. And I was I remember sitting there and just being amazed at like, holy cow, like, how could God or how could I have ever planned this out better? There is there was no indication um back in November that layoffs were coming. Like our company has been strong for years, and I was I was just astounded. I was like amazed that God was like weaving these celestial strands to line everything up perfectly. Here I was, like worried about money and like trying to make sure I made the most and trying to set myself up for success and trying to do it all by myself. And finally, when I just let it all go, I was like, Heavenly Father, like I'm gonna do what you say. This doesn't make sense. I don't love where I'm at, but it's not bad, and I could stay here if I wanted. He he just hit a home run for me, you know? Like counterintuitively, I felt like I should have been like working and putting all this a ton of effort into this. Like, I felt like I had to earn something like this type of miracle, but I didn't earn it. That's the problem here, and that's why it's like amazing. Like, I didn't I didn't do anything beyond what he asked. Like, I felt like I still during this time did the bare minimum. And this is where verse 27 from Matthew 26 comes in. He said, and this is like kind of like the thing that like put the knell in the coffin for me and why I wanted to share this story. And it says, which of you, by taking thought, can add one qubit onto his stature? So that's how I felt. Like I felt like God was like, I'm gonna teach you a lesson that you've tried to build yourself up without me, and it you've done like you've done as good as you can, right? But when you allow me to come in, I will build you up faster and greater than you ever could think possible. There was no way I could have engineered this outcome. No way. Like, there's no way I could have the foresight for this to all work out. God was solving problems that I didn't even

Seek First The Kingdom: Final Charge

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know were coming. And I wonder, like, I really wonder how many times God is going before us and correcting problems just just to like help us out, you know? The great thing is I didn't have to burn any bridges switching jobs. I like was like, okay, this is perfect, and I'll smoothly transition. Like I didn't have to have any hard conversations or or have to go through them trying to get me to stay. And this is where the last part of Matthew 20 um or Matthew 6 really is just like this is the part that always stands out to me. And I think it is sums up this whole story completely. Are you not much better than they? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe yeath you, O ye of little faith. Therefore take no thought, saying what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Man, I was like when I read this the other day, it was kind of like God like lovingly chastising me. He's like, you know, like the birds of the air, the flowers of the of the field have more faith in you. They don't allow fear to uh completely consume them, where they have to hold on to all these trivial securities in their life. They just go about their day and God takes care of them. The birds don't have to sow, they don't have to reap, they don't have to like find a place to shelter themselves. And Heavenly Father takes care of them. And it's like even the lowest things of this earth are God's priority. He cares about them. The lowest things, like the freaking flowers, like how many times have we like stepped on a flower or killed a flower and like to God that he still loves that thing and we take it for granted. So if God can care about the smallest of things on this earth and make sure they're taken care of, wouldn't he, who he is labeled as his work and his glory, wouldn't he do the utmost to take care of us? And like that's the question that has hung in the air since this experience. We are his work and his glory. Why do we preoccup preoccupy ourselves with worldly masters who we feel like we have to pay tribute to? When if we would just pay tribute to the master, who has power over all the money of our lives, over the emotional. Parts of our lives over everything. Like, how much better would our lives be? And like, I know probably I'll go back. Like, there's always waxing and waning parts of our spiritual lives. Like, we're never stagnant. And I'll probably have to learn this lesson again and again. And I think this is why Matthew 6 always enters my lives at different times because I always feel like I'm trying to control everything. I'm trying to make sure I'm successful without God's self. I'm trying to make as much money as I possibly can without God. And I think that's where I just want to like leave you guys with the world chases money, stability, comfort, control. But God already knows what we need. We think we need things, but like we're a terrible judge of our own character, of others. We're a terrible judge of basically everything. We're learning to be better judges, but like God often knows what we need better than we do. Why not turn to Him? And this is a principle I think we should all learn and try to embody every day. And it's but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Seek God first, and everything will be added to us. Seek God through spiritual habits, through keeping the commandments, through listening to the Spirit. And I promise you, God will arrange your life better than you could. He can time up things, he can make sure you have a greater capacity, he can make sure there's more opportunity in your life than you ever thought possible. I thought I was navigating a career, but really God was positioning me. And when I stopped controlling, and I started like really trying to focus on him, he added everything I needed to my life. And with that said, remember Lil Flock, despair not, build upon the rock, do good, and always hear him. See you guys.