In short, God wants our heart. Jesus summed it up in two commandments in Matthew 22:
"'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Our retired pastor, whom I greatly respect, summed it up with these lines from a well known hymn: "Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus . . ." Obedience follows trust (faith) in Jesus, as the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah.
Some have altered this to say you must follow many rules and laws to show your "goodness" to others around you in lieu of a trusting and saving faith. This sometimes amounts to legalism, which manifests itself in pride. Yet, the scriptures clearly state "Be holy, as I am holy", yet as sinners (Romans 3:23 states ALL have sinned), we can not achieve holiness on our own. The first required step in arriving at that goal of a pursuit of holiness is a new heart. As Jesus said in John 3:7, "You must be born again".
The Lord's Prayer also sheds light on what God wants from us. The opening phrase "Hallowed be thy name" means we are to worship and praise God as the Sovereign and all-powerful creator, of which "Thy will be done". We are to look to God for provision and in times of need as stated with "Give us our day our daily bread". We are to go to the father in confession of our sins "Forgive us our trespasses" as often as needed and we are to "Forgive those that trespass against us". We are to seek God's help to keep us from sin as stated "Lead us not into temptation" and "Deliver us from evil".
