Something brought this beautiful melody to my mind recently … and it’s been coming to the fore from time to time ever since, with the added nudging that I had to place it’s beautiful words on this page:
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, was 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!
While the other verses contain a great message … the first verse has been one of my favorites ever since I first heard this song at least 40 years ago now. Think about it … if we truly commit ourselves in His name, what else do we need?
In doing some research, I found – as is usually the case with so many good songs and stories – that the writer was impacted by a particular incident. In this instance, it was the attendance at a prayer meeting one night where an elderly woman pleaded, “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your way with our lives.” At this meeting was Adelaide Addison Pollard, a rather well-known itinerant Bible teacher at the beginning of the 20th century, who was deeply discouraged because she had been unable to raise the necessary funds for a trip to Africa to do missionary service. She was moved by the older woman’s sincere and dedicated request of God.
At home that evening Miss Pollard meditated on Jeremiah 18:3, 4:
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
That’s how those verses are written in the original King James … here’s how it’s translated in the original NIV:
So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Before retiring for the night, Adelaide Pollard completed the writing of all four stanzas of this hymn as it is sung today, more than a century after it was first published in 1907.
The melody was composed by George Coles Stebbins, a noted Gospel songwriter from the latter half of the 1800’s and earlier part of the 1900s.
I can say that there definitely are some “struggles” going on in my own mind at this point … and I know that I need to spend more time in prayer so as to recognize what the Lord wants from me in the remaining years of my life here on earth, versus maybe what I personally would like to do with that time.
If you are facing a similar situation, I urge you to offer it up in prayer and, if you feel led, let me hear from you. Thank you.
Marlin
