I think what God wants from us is obedience. With regard to "understanding:"
And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
That statement is bizarrely misguided on two or three levels.
What God wants us to do is what He commands.
If you love me, obey my commands.
Nowhere in there did you mention doing what the Lord commanded us to do. "Understanding" is worthless if it does not lead to doing.
I love the Scriptures, and appreciate your opinion, but I think you are wrongly applying those Scriptures.
(1) I agree obedience is imperative. But, that doesn't negate understanding. The OP, as I re-read it had nothing to do with whether or not we are to be obedient to God, instead, it was questioning whether there was benefit in trying to understand things (to the best of our ability) or not invest time in understanding. Whether one believes in our free will having any importance or not CAN HAVE A BIG IMPACT on how we responds to what Jesus tells us to do.
(2) The verse you used to support that Jesus didn't care about understanding has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do with grown adults arguing about who is better. Read the context around the verse. Matthew 18:1-6. A similar incident is reported in Mark 9:33-42. In both scenarios, He seemed more concerned about not offending one of His own.
(3) In contrast to your suggested use of that Scripture about little children, Jesus said:
(a) To Nicodemus: "Are you a teacher of Israel, and know not these things? Verily, verily, I say to you, We speak what We do know, and testify that We have seen; and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:10-12) Jesus appears to be expecting Nicodemus to know/understand. His earnest question is met with a charge of disbelief.
(b) To His disciples: In Mar 4, after telling the parable of the Sower and the seed: "Then Jesus said, 'Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.' When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, 'The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and
ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven! Then Jesus said to them, “
Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? (Mar 4:9-13)
(c) To His disciples: "
Do you still not understand..." (Mar 8:14-21, Matt 16:5-12)
(d) I would also argue that God cares more about us trusting Him than that we understand everything perfectly. But, that is not the same as saying that He doesn't want us to even try to understand. What exactly is "renewing the mind"? (Romans 12:2)
(4) I understand you feel I'm off on applying Luke 6:31/Matt 7:12 to my treatment of God. I do agree we show outwardly show our love by obeying His commands and yet there were people who tried to obey His commands that didn't do it out of love but to earn something. My feeling is that Scripture is God choosing to communicate with us. If I have a potential spouse and she writes me a letter and I don't care to read it and understand what she is trying to tell me, then I don't believe I can really say that I love her. If Scripture is truly God's inspired communication to us, then shouldn't we bury ourselves in it--not only to read the words to claim we've done it once or once a year, but to care enough to try to understand what God is saying to us as much as possible? You don't have to agree; but I am very very certain God has made this very very clear to me. Do you really think God would have a problem with us applying Luke 6:31 toward Him? Wouldn't that necessarily include obedience to Him?
I don't understand how you feel that is "bizarrely misguided" as you claimed.
(5) How do we know what we are supposed to do, without some level of understanding? As I said above, understanding necessarily leads to obedience; but you can have obedience to a set of rules that won't save you. Walking in the Spirit--walking in relationship with Him--is what matters.
(6) So, does God care that I am cheerfully willing to spend the time trying to help you understand? If I follow "Love your neighbor as yourself" and Luke 6:31, then I have to believe He does.
(7) Does my understanding matter? Within my first four years, God progressively took me to greater understanding that included the value of speaking in tongues (in private prayer) and the value of my laying hands on the sick where some can be instantaneously healed. Prior to that I prayed for people, but I can't tell you that anyone was healed or that any that were realized that they were healed by God through prayer. Since then, there are some who have to undeniably give God glory for their healing. They can't divert the glory anywhere else. They can't credit the doctors or the medicines or the surgeons for their healing. It was very clearly God. And, that is exactly what I told them. When I look at Scripture, Jesus Himself says there are signs that will show you who really believes (Mar 16:15-20).
(8) Paul talks about how we see dimly now, but Paul spent a lot of time presenting and defending the faith. He also warned (as did the other writers and Jesus Himself) about false prophets/teachers who were going to lead people astray. Without understanding/knowledge, how can you discern when someone is leading you astray? How can we defend the faith without knowing what the faith is? How can we answer questions without having some wisdom/understanding to base our responses? If everyone has understanding, why are there so many different denominations/churches that think they have the right understanding in their declaration of doctrine? Was it the Spirit's goal to breed the division or was it the lack of understanding that caused division?
(9) Jesus defines eternal life as "knowing The Father and the One, Jesus Christ, whom He sent." (John 17:3) Paul continues in 1 Cor 13 that there is coming a day where we will know as fully as we are known.
(10) When you consider those who are unbelievers, wouldn't you say that it is because of their lack of understanding? Because they can't understand God (at all) and therefore won't believe, they come up with alternative explanations rather than accept what God says is Truth. Nominal professing Christians are the same way mixing worldly knowledge with Scripture, because they don't really understand how powerful and able God is. Truth is, we can't believe beyond our level of understanding. Jesus had perfect understanding, He cursed a fig tree and it died and He told us we could tell a mountain to move and it would. How many do you know that have achieved that level of belief? Shoot how many believe to the level of casting out demons, speaking in tongues, and laying hands on the sick and watching them get healed? And yet, that's Jesus definition of belief.
(11) Jesus seemed to believe that anyone who was willing to do God's will would be able to know His doctrine. That devotion and willingness for forsake the things of this world for Him come with some level of understanding and therefore trust.
(12) Joseph's understanding enabled him to respond differently to his brothers than they were expecting: "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." Abraham's understanding and trust in God enabled him to challenge God's plan with regard to Sodom and enabled him to be willing to put his son on the altar and raise a knife in preparation to kill his own son. Without the new understanding caused by God sending Peter to Cornelius, Paul may not have been accepted at all. But Acts 15 followed Acts 11. I could go on.
