What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

I have thought about this question so many times.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Last year there was so many mornings when I was pleading with God almost every day. I was carrying heartbreak, uncertainty, and so many unanswered prayers. I remember one morning opening my scriptures after another desperate prayer, hoping to find some kind of answer.

And there was Bartimaeus.

As I read the story, I was stopped by the same question Jesus asked him:

“What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?”

I remember sitting there almost in disbelief.

Wait.

He’s asking me?

There I was asking Him for answers, asking Him for direction, asking Him to fix things I could not fix. Yet Jesus paused long enough to ask what I wanted.

What struck me wasn’t just that He asked the question. It was that my desires mattered enough to Him for Him to ask.

I think sometimes we become so focused on enduring, surviving, or simply getting through hard seasons that we stop paying attention to the deeper desires of our hearts. We know what hurts. We know what we’re afraid of. But when Jesus asks what we truly want, sometimes the answer isn’t as clear as we thought.

I sat with that question for a long time because I didn’t even know how to answer it.

Did I want my circumstances to change?

Did I want the people I loved to change?

Did I want my pain to go away?

Or did I want peace while I waited?

Today, if Jesus asked me that question, I think my answer would be different than it once was.

I would tell Him I want to trust Him more.

I want to see Him working in places where I cannot.

I want a heart that stays soft when life feels hard.

I want the courage to keep showing up when answers don’t come as quickly as I hope.

And perhaps most of all, I want to know Him better.

I love that Jesus asked Bartimaeus before He healed him.

It reminds me that He is not just interested in solving problems.

He is interested in us.

He wants relationship.

He wants conversation. He wants us to bring our deepest hopes, fears, dreams, and desires to Him.

What do I want Him to do for me?

Today, I think I would simply say:

“Help me become the person You know I can be while I wait for the things I’m still praying for.”