What do you want from me?

"What do you want from me?"

On the page, this question can take on a wide range of tones and emotions, depending on how we read it.

Maybe you hear it with frustration, like: Leave me alone! What do you want from me? Or perhaps you read it more gently, as though it's coming from a place of concern, curiosity, or even surrender.

Recently, this question struck me deeply during prayer. I found myself imagining Christ on the Cross, asking: What do you want from me? What are you asking of me?

In a way, Christ does ask this in the Gospels—though often, He doesn’t have to; people come to Him with their needs and desires before He even speaks.

But then, as I reflected on it, I turned the question around: Lord, what do you want from me? What are You asking me to do?

So often in prayer, we focus on what we want from God: our needs, our hopes, our burdens. Yet, how often do we stop to ask what He wants from us?

This question, when it comes from us, has the power to transform our prayer from a monologue into a true dialogue with God. It shifts our perspective from seeking to listening, from telling to receiving.

Lord, what do You want from me?