31 Lines of Prayer

This is a different kind of list today. These prayers (attributed to Mother Teresa) have been in my heart lately so I thought I would share them. I have heard people say, "But I don't want to be delivered from the need to be loved." I understand the sentiment. We all want to love and be loved.

I think the prayer is asking for help in putting off human desires in favor of spiritual ones, as Paul talks about in Ephesians 4:22-24: "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." The last line in this list captures it all - "The evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to You." If we have put off our old self and pursue Christ with all we have (which He enables us to do, by the way), the fullness of our hearts with love for Him will not leave room for any of these other desires or fears. 


Will you join me in praying these 31 Lines of Prayer today?
 

Deliver me, O Jesus,
From the desire of being loved,
From the desire of being extolled,
From the desire to being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the desire of being popular,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being suspected.
Dear Jesus, help us to spread Your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being, so utterly,
That our lives may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through us, and be so in us,
That every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus!
Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as You shine;
So to shine as to be a light to others.
The light O Jesus will be all from You, none of it will be ours;
It will be You, shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise You without preaching, not by words but by our example,
By the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do,
The evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to You.  Amen.