Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907 (1846-1945)

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, Savior today!

Wash me just now, 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!

These words were inspired by a simple sentence prayed by an elderly woman at a prayer meeting in the early 1900s. Instead of asking blessings from the Lord, she gave herself as a living sacrifice in the words, "It doesn't matter what You bring tinto lives, Lord. Just have Your own way with us." Adelaide Pollard was present in the meeting and the clause, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," rang in her ears so intensely that before she reached home she had formed some stanzas of this hymn in her mind. Before retiring that evening, she had completed the hymn. Adelaide Pollard authored over 100 hymns and Gospel songs. Pollard was educated in Denmark, Iowa; Valparaiso, Indiana; at the Boston School of Oratory; and the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. She taught in Chicago, and at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Training School in New York. She worked for a while with evangelist John Alexander Dowie, and also in Africa, leaving for Scotland after World War I began. She later returned to New York. As seventy-two years old Miss Adelaide was enroute from her New York City home to a New Jersey town on December 20 in 1934 where she was to hold some religious meetings, she became critically ill in the New York City railroad station. She was rushed to a nearby Y.W.C.A. home where she died shortly thereafter, death being attributed to a ruptured appendix.