Each Monday I try to post a new “Poem of the Week” on my office door and for some time I have thought I should post that poem here as well. So finally, I am doing so!

This is a poem of Amy Carmichael’s which I first encountered through the writings of Elisabeth Elliot. I kept it taped to my dorm room wall in college, and its words still echo through my soul. It is a strong challenge but does not call us to look to ourselves to meet the challenge; rather, it points us to Christ.

Make Me Thy Fuel

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified,
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire,
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

-taken from Toward Jerusalem, by Amy Carmichael