Prayer For Addiction

Douglas McKelvey 209 Every Moment Holy Vol 1 p. 165

A LITURGY FOR ONE

Battling a Destructive Desire

Jesus, here I am again,

            Desiring a thing

            That were I to indulge in it

            Would wage war against my own heart,

            And the hearts of those I love.

O Christ, rather let my life be thine!

Take my desires.  Let them be subsumed

in still greater desire for you,

Until there remains no room

            for these lesser cravings.

In this moment I might choose

to indulge a fleeting hunger,

Or I might choose

To love you more.

Faced with this temptation,

I would rather choose you, Jesus—

but I am weak.  So be my strength.

I am shadowed. Be my light.

I am selfish.  Unmake me now,

and refashion my desires

according to the better designs of your love.

Given the choice of shame or glory,

            Let me choose glory.

Given the choice of this moment or eternity,

            Let me choose in this moment what is eternal.

Given the choice of this easy pleasure,

Or the harder road of the cross,

            give me grace to choose to follow you

            knowing that there is nowhere apart from you

            presence where I might find the peace I long for,

            no lasting satisfaction apart from your

            reclamation of my heart.

Let me build, then, my King,

a beautiful thing by long obedience,

by the steady progression of small choices

that laid end to end will become like the stones

of a pleasing path stretching to eternity and

unto your welcoming arms and unto the sound

of your voice pronouncing the judgment:

Well Done.