Prayer of Serenity

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

                                            Reinhold Niebuhr

Serenity Prayer: Applying 3 Biblical Truths | Prayer of Serenity

One of the most popular prayers today is known as the Serenity Prayer. Written by Reinhold Neibuhr (1892-1971), the prayer was widely used in sermons and Sunday school groups and studies. In the early 40s, the group Alcoholics Anonymous began to use a shortened version of the Serenity Prayer in their twelve-step program. 

Serenity Prayer – Full Version (composed in 1940s)

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world

As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life

And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.
Amen.

Shortened Version  | Prayer of Serenity

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

3 Biblical Truths We Can Apply to the Serenity Prayer

1. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”

When life feels out of control, it’s easy to try to work harder at controlling everything and everyone around us! Some of us do the opposite and just throw our hands up and give up on the situation or person. Whichever extreme you go to, peace and serenity continues to move further from your life. 

Accepting and submitting to God’s control and plan for your life is the only way to find peace in situations you cannot control or change. We may not always know God’s plan but we can let go of trying to orchestrate and manipulate events and people and let God work through us. God promises a supernatural peace when we bring our worries and concerns to Him in prayer.

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” – Philippians 4:7

“Be still and know that I am God!” – Psalms 46:10

2. “the courage to change the things I can,”

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have received the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is able to supply you with the courage to follow and act upon God’s plan for your life. Instead of fearfully ignoring hard decisions or running from what seems too difficult, we can call upon the power of God for courage to move forward into the full life He has planned for us.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” – 2 Timothy 1:7

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6 

3. “and, the wisdom to know the difference.”

Wisdom is a gift that God promises to give to those who ask for it! You can grow in wisdom each day and make better decisions as you spend time reading the Bible and communicating with God through prayer. God will tell you, through his Word or answers in prayer, when to accept things and when to take courage to change them. 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” – James 1:5

“and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:15-17

Serenity means being peaceful and calm and it’s something we can all use in this age of insanity. When you pray these serenity prayers, you are turning to a higher power to ease your burden. This is something God does willingly.

What is the meaning of these serenity prayer? | Prayer of Serenity

Any prayer asking for serenity is a prayer request to go beyond our own abilities and trust that God has everything under control. This prayer is often used when people feel hopeless or unable to handle a situation. In these times, it’s important to realize that it is not possible to deal with life on your own and you do need help. Each section of the original serenity prayer focuses on a specific topic. Acceptance, courage, and wisdom. These are very important if you want to overcome a problem in your life.

What is the serenity prayer used for?

Many people need more peace and calm in their lives and the serenity prayer is the best way to do this. Where does the serenity prayer come from? It was originally written by Reinhold Niebuhr, a 20^th century theologian-philosopher and has been used for AA and other anonymous and recovery groups. Over the years, it has become a very useful as a prayer to help us remember that God is in control.

A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?
Proverbs 20:24

What is the Serenity Prayer for AA? | Prayer of Serenity

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to his Will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever and ever in the next. Amen.

Serenity Prayers for Worries

Our Father in Heaven, I pray that You touch me today and release these anxieties and worries that are holding me down and pulling me back. Remove the burdens in my life and the emotions that I do not need in order to follow You. As I follow Your word, Lord, I ask that You eliminate these obstructions and show me the way You want me to follow. Wipe my mind clean of worries and stresses, that I may focus entirely on You. Thank you. Amen.

Serenity Prayers for Forgiveness | Prayer of Serenity

Lord, thank You for Your wonderful forgiveness and your calming presence in my life. I am here on my knees before You to ask for help in forgiving. Though I don’t feel like it’s possible to forgive this person for what they have done, I know that all things are possible through You. Help me become a living messenger for You here on Earth. In Your Name, Amen.

Serenity Prayers for Inner Place | Prayer of Serenity

Dear Lord, I come before You today with my heart heavy and I cry out for Your help. I find my mind is troubled. My heart is burdened with self-doubt, knowing that I’m not good enough. But You are enough for everyone and I know that you, God, are able to take this broken vessel and put it to good use. You love me just as I am, so please, grant me the ability to forgive myself and find serenity in Your presence. I trust in you, Lord, and Your will is mine. Amen.

Serenity Prayers for Those Who Are Lost

O Lord, we stand here today, to thank You for Your love and acceptance and to ask that you help those who do not yet know your peace and serenity. Work in their hearts, Lord, dry their tears and show them what true peace really is. In Your Name, Amen.

Serenity Prayers for Rest

Dear God, I come to you tired and worn down. I’m exhausted, but I cannot rest and I ask for your help, Lord, to calm my mind, my heart and to ease my soul. Show me the true rest that can be found in You alone. Help me learn to trust in you and leave it all in your hands. In Your Name, Amen.

Prayer of Release | Prayer of Serenity

Dear Lord, I want to release these heavy burdens that I’ve been carrying, knowing that You never meant for me to do this alone. I supplicate to you, O Lord. Please take my worries, my fears, my anxieties. Take them and lift them from me, that I may better serve You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

VERSES:

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

If you would like your prayer to be heard in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest points on earth, we can help you. Send us your personal serenity prayer and we will take it to the church. Then we email the photos of your prayer and candle. Experience the power of prayer for yourself.

Serenity Prayer | Prayer of Serenity

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; 
enjoying one moment at a time; 
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; 
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will; 
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. 
Amen.

reinhold niebuhr (1892-1971)

Niebuhr used various versions of the prayer widely in sermons as early as 1934. The prayer spread rapidly, often without attribution to Niebuhr, through church groups in the 1930s and 1940s and was adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs. The Serenity Prayer appeared in a sermon of Niebuhr’s as part of the 1944 A Book of Prayers and Services for the Armed Forces, while Niebuhr himself first published it in 1951 in a magazine column.

The Serenity Prayer and Twelve Step Recovery

Finding the Balance between Acceptance and Change

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can, and
The wisdom to know the difference.

AA, the Twelve Steps and the Serenity Prayer | Prayer of Serenity

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous have enthusiastically embraced the healing wisdom of this beloved prayer—known as the Serenity Prayer—from the earliest days of the fellowship. In fact, these 27 words are heard today in most every AA meeting because the prayer offers a simplified version of the Twelve Step path to sanity and sobriety.

In many ways, the Serenity Prayer mirrors the spirituality, principles and practices of AA’s Twelve Steps. And, although the origin is thought to be Christian, the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer is applicable to daily life regardless of your religion, concept of God or spiritual belief system. Several versions of the Serenity Prayer exist, each with slightly different wording that various support groups have adopted. The full prayer text, shown below, includes stronger religious overtones than the abbreviated version, which is most often recited in AA groups.

There are conflicting accounts of the prayer’s origin. It has been variously attributed to an ancient Sanskrit text; the Greek philosopher, Aristotle; the early Christian theologian, St. Augustine; the Catholic preacher and patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi; and other spiritual leaders. Many AA members were first introduced to the prayer in 1948, when it was quoted in AA Grapevine, the fellowship’s magazine. There, the prayer was credited to American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). The Serenity Prayer spread through both Niebuhr’s sermons and church groups in the 1930s and 1940s, and was later adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and other Twelve Step programs.

Living the Serenity Prayer in Recovery from Alcohol or Drug Addiction

For many, the first verse of the Serenity Prayer serves as a daily touchstone, reminding us that to achieve serenity, we must approach each moment with acceptance, courage and wisdom. The prayer perfectly expresses the central problem of addiction and prescribes a timeless solution.

The Serenity Prayer’s message about acceptance echoes insights from Bill W., cofounder of AA. In the book Alcoholics Anonymous, published by AA World Services, Bill described the core trait of alcoholics as self-centeredness—something he called “self-will run riot.” He further portrayed the alcoholic as “an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of the players in his own way.” Bill’s solution: “First of all, we had to quit playing God.”

What blocks some alcoholics and addicts from achieving serenity is this intense desire to achieve a sense of absolute control—an impossibility for human beings. This need for control has two aspects: First, the attempt to control the behavior of others, a strategy that addicts cling to despite its repeated failure; and second, the attempt to control feelings by medicating them with mood-altering chemicals. Both strategies are doomed to failure.

An alcoholic’s quest for absolute control can lead to misery, which may, in turn, contribute to substance abuse problems. Ironically, the need to control may also be a response to the unmanageability caused by the out-of-control use of alcohol or other drugs. And the vicious cycle continues until the addict is able to accept that there will always be hardship in life and external circumstances beyond his or her ability to change. The prayer points us to examine our inner life and to understand that we can influence our feelings and our emotional health through the things we can control—our thinking and our actions. By focusing on those two factors, we strengthen our capacity for courage, the final quality promised in the Serenity Prayer.

The Serenity Prayer opens a wide door to spiritual growth and healing, one that embraces people of all faiths, backgrounds and beliefs about God. It offers spiritual truths and practical wisdom to addicts and non-addicts alike. People who learn to live and breathe this prayer in their daily lives discover, in the balance between acceptance and change, the precious gift of serenity—a gift that is available to us with each new day and enlightens our lifelong, spiritual journey.

The Full Serenity Prayer | the full Prayer of Serenity

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

As it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make things right

If I surrender to His Will;

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life

And supremely happy with Him

Forever and ever in the next.

Amen.

The Wisdom of the Serenity Prayer | wisdom of Prayer of Serenity

The Serenity Prayer is one of the best known prayers in Christianity and perhaps the best known Christian prayer among non-Christians. The famous prayer asks for God’s help achieving something that most people desire but few can achieve: peace and happiness in life. Unlike many prayers that ask for peace or happiness, the Serenity Prayer does not simply ask that God hand a person peace wholesale. Instead, the prayer lays out specific steps that will help a person achieve serenity in their life and asks God to help them gather the strength to live by those smaller goals. The Serenity Prayer does not so much ask for a gift as much as it asks God to help a person create or earn their own peace. 

The first half of the Serenity Prayer is the most commonly quoted section of the prayer. Perhaps it is due to the prayer’s unusual popularity among non-Christians and the fact that it is the second stanza of the prayer that gives emphasis to Christ and His life rather than how to achieve serenity. Still, the prayer has inspired millions of people, Christians and non-Christians alike. This beautiful prayer, however, is so often quoted that its wisdom can be lost. Here is a breakdown of the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…

Shutterstock.comEveryone has things in their life they wish that they could change, whether it is something as small as the traffic and congestion that fills a person’s daily commute or something as serious as a loved one’s diagnosis with terminal cancer. When faced with something we wish we could change, we often fight it. We rage against the congested traffic and fall prey to road rage. We deny the terrible news of a deadly diagnosis and stick our heads in the sand. We hide from the truth. We hate it. We curse it. We do the spiritual equivalent of punching a brick wall and expecting the wall to come down instead of our knuckles to bruise and split and break. In our hearts we know that there is nothing we can do to change some facts of life. People will die. Tragedies will happen. The inevitability of those facts does not make them less horrible, but it does mean that there is nothing we can do about it. The first two lines of the Serenity Prayer ask for perhaps one of the hardest things of all: the strength to both accept that some things are out of our control and come to peace with that fact rather than drowning in useless, toxic rage.

…Courage to change the things I can…

Pixabay.comPeople love to complain. Think about it. How often do our coworkers start the week not with a smile and story about something pleasant they did over the weekend but a moan, groan or curse about the first day of the work week? When starting a conversation, do we share our joy? Unfortunately, we are much more likely to start a conversation by complaining about something, even something as small as the weather. Complaints seem to be our go-to form of communication, but how often do people really try to change what they claim so grievously offends, inconveniences or angers them?

In the age of social media and the internet, it is easier than ever to jump on the bandwagon and complain about an event, person, policy or organization. Ironically, many of the loudest virtual voices have never done a thing to help the causes they claim matter so much. It is easy to complain, especially from behind the protection of a screen name and keyboard. It is not easy to actually enact change. It is not easy to go up to someone we respect and say “I disagree.” It is not easy to face down someone who is screaming with hate and say, civilly and respectfully, “You are wrong and here is why.” Truly creating change does not happen from behind a screen or around a water cooler. It takes time, effort, energy and, yes, risk. The penultimate line of the first stanza of the Serenity Prayer asks God to help us find the inner strength and deep well of bravery we all possess and turn that willpower and courage toward bringing about the changes that matter to us.

…And the wisdom to know the difference with the help of Prayer of Serenity

Discernment is one of the most difficult skills to master especially when it comes to dealing with our ability to influence the world around us. We often have an overinflated sense of our own power to enact change. On some subconscious level, we truly believe that we can make other people see our point of view if we just have one more conversation with them, explain our position one more time or, sometimes, yell loudly enough. This, of course, is ridiculous. People do not change their minds when others shout at them or call them names. Even those who try to change events or others’ opinions with civil, respectful behavior often find themselves frustrated as things refuse to change. This is because the things they want to influence are not within their ability to alter. Discerning what we can change and what we simply wish we could change is not easy. The Serenity Prayer recognizes that very human refusal to admit defeat and accept that something is out of our hands. As such, the prayer asks for God’s help discerning what we can truly control and what we merely wish we could influence.  

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time… with the help of Prayer of Serenity

We all know someone who is never really present in the moment. They may be worrying constantly about tomorrow or forever daydreaming about the next great thing that they believe will happen in their life. They never take the time to enjoy the moment they are standing in or to revel in the life they live. Their focus is always on something else. Unfortunately, when we are focused on something in the far off future or distant past, whether good or bad, we let life pass us by. Whether we want to admit it or not, most of life is composed of the little moments that so many of us ignore. When we are worrying about the big presentation we have at work later in the week, we are not paying attention to our spouse who is longing for some emotional connection. When we are consumed with excitement for our cruise next month, we miss the friend who was looking to simply catch up over lunch. The Serenity Prayer reminds us that those little moments—the butterfly perched on the flowers by the office door, the smile of our child when she sees that daddy’s home, the smell of fresh baked cookies–get lost so easily even though those little moments are the ones that make up most of our lives and make our lives worth living. 

Living the Serenity Prayer

Learn how to stop worrying about life’s uncertainties and start focusing on the positive using these practical tips inspired by the Serenity Prayer.

By Eileen Flanagan

Many of us know and love the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant us serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Many of us spend too much time anxious about things we cannot change: the economy, the weather, traffic on the freeway, or people who annoy us. As a result, we don’t have the energy to make the most of the opportunities we do have. Recognizing the difference between what we can and cannot change can help us live more peaceful and productive lives.

Acknowledge Your Conditioning

Some people have a harder time with the first line of the Serenity Prayer, accepting the things they cannot change, while others have a harder time mustering the courage to change what they can. Often these patterns can be traced to family or cultural conditioning. Reflect on the messages you received growing up. Were you expected to be passive and submit to what others wanted? Were you trained to be in control, so that letting go is more difficult for you today? Sometimes just acknowledging your family or social conditioning can help you to let go of old patterns that are no longer serving you.

Know Yourself

Many spiritual traditions teach that knowing yourself is a lifelong pursuit, but one that can help you feel more at peace with yourself and other people. Spending time alone—walking in the woods, meditating, or journaling—can put you in touch with what’s really going on inside you. When you acknowledge these feelings, you can make a conscious choice about what to accept and what to change, rather than letting yourself be ruled by unconscious feelings.

Pay Attention to Your Inner Voice

When you get a feeling that something isn’t right, pay attention. That may be a sign of something you need to change. We human beings have a tremendous ability to deny our inner truths or talk ourselves out of making changes that might seem scary or difficult at first, but usually we know what is right deep down. Pay special attention to intuitions that persist over time or that come with a sense of peace and clarity. The more you pay attention to your Inner Voice, the more clearly it will guide you.