Have Thine Own Way Lord

Have you ever been in a situation where there is so much turmoil going on in your life, that you feel totally swamped and unable to bear anymore? Last week was one of those weeks for me and this week is no different – except that my reaction to it all has changed. Thank God for His sustaining power, no matter what we are going through! Today I feel a peace that only He can impart all because I have committed these heavy burdens to Him and left them there.

The tune of some hymn kept going through my head, since all these troubles intensified and strangely it was a while before I remembered what the hymn was…  and then it came to me:

“Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mould me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.”

One afternoon recently when I was alone and very troubled, I simply looked up into the blue sky and asked the Lord to totally have His own way in my life and in all the circumstances which were causing me so much anguish. Not my will, or anyone else’s will – but the Lord’s will be done!

Adelaide Addison Pollard (1862-1934), the writer of the hymn “Have Thine Own Way Lord,” believed that she was called of the Lord to be a missionary in Africa. However, she was unable to raise the funds to go. Troubled and uncertain, she attended a prayer meeting where she heard an elderly woman pray:

“It’s all right, Lord. It does­n’t mat­ter what You bring in­to our lives, just have Your own way with us.”

Because of the elderly woman’s prayer, that night in 1907 Miss Pollard wrote that encouraging and challenging hymn which I have been dwelling on this past week. How amazing to think that a prayer could inspire a hymn which in turn would inspire me – over one hundred years later!

Only the Lord can work out whole situations in our lives and bring His will to bear, defeating the powers of darkness which would try to make us feel defeated. Surely, if we have committed all to Him… “He is the Potter – and we are the clay.” (Isaiah 64v8, 29v16, 45v9, Jeremiah 18v1-6.)

And He can (and will) work out circumstances in our lives, overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles.

“Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.”

Link to this hymn: http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/t/hthineow.htm

Tags: adelaide addison pollard, burdens, clay, elizabeth burke, have thine own way lord, potter, prayer meetings, ready writer publications, troubles