What Would You Have Me Do?

Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?

ACTS 10:6

EVERY task, however simple, sets the soul that does it free;

Every deed of love and mercy, done to man is done to Me.

HENRY VAN DYKE

FOR each one of us, whether on a bed of pain, in feebleness and uncertainty of purpose such as comes with ill-health or overstrained nerves, or whatever else may be our immediate condition, nothing is more urgent, nothing more behooves us than to ask, "What wouldst Thou have me to do?" For, whatever our state, however helpless and incapable, however little service to God or to our neighbor seems within our power, there is no doubt at all as to His willing us to do something. Not necessarily any great thing; it may be only some little message of sympathy and comfort to carry to one even more lonely than we are; it may be some tiny pleasure to a little child, or a kindly word or glance to one whose own fault has cut him off from general kindness and pity; it may be even only in humble patience to stand and wait till He makes His will plain, abstaining the while from mur­mur and fretfulness; but, in some shape or other, be certain that your Master and Lord hears and will answer your question, "What wouldst Thou have me to do?"

H. L. SIDNEY LEAR

This is a public domain version of Joy and Strength.