Prayer To Live In Serenity Today

SERENITY PRAYER - LIVING ONE DAY AT A TIME

The Serenity Prayer is the common name for a prayer authored by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. 

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.

Although these first few lines are the most familiar, there are also other wonderful treasures in how to live well in recovery in the rest of the prayer. After these most commonly spoken lines, the next phrase in this prayer is “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.”

The Bible encourages us to commit everything we do to the Lord.  This means, daily surrendering our will and our lives into God's care and, with His help, do with joy those things we have planned to do.  Regularly taking personal inventory helps us maintain our peace and enjoy each day without carrying difficult issues forward.

Are we doing what God has taught us to do in His Word and that others who’ve walked with God for some time have faithfully shared with us?  Are we keeping our focus on this day – not living in yesterday’s regret nor fantasy or worry about days, weeks, and months ahead?  Are we giving this day our best effort rather than resting on what was accomplished in another time or what we plan to do at some point in the future?

God’s Word shares these simple principles with us:

Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.  Psalm 37:3-5

So let’s live today trusting in God’s care, and accepting wisdom and peace as we do.

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.