| Prayers To Live By. Our Christian history and tradition is just full of gold: stories, people, traditions and prayers that have inspired and nurtured peoples’ faith and helped them on their walk with Jesus through life. Here is one such prayer…. |
 The Prayer of Serenity was written sometime during the early 20th Century. It is often attributed to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and was taken up by the AA movement as their prayer.Serenity means peace. Jesus promises to give us peace, even if he does not promise to stop all our troubles. The opposite of peace is stress. Stress comes from situations we feel we can’t change. Covid-19 is just such a situation. Personally we don’t have the power to change this Global crisis. We are not that powerful. However, stressing about such things, although a natural reaction, is not a personally helpful response. When we are faced with things we can not change this prayer invites peace. A peace that comes from knowing that one day all things will be well because of Jesus. When we are stressed we might miss what we can do to make a difference. Therefore, this prayer invites God to reveal to us the ways we can influence change and the courage to actually do it. During this crisis the most powerful thing we can do to change things is to simply stay home! Does not seem heroic, but is actually incredibly powerful. This prayer is not just for a crisis like this though, but is relevant to so much of our lives. How much do we stress everyday about things we have no control over or even connection to? And how often do we miss the opportunity to make a difference because we didn’t know our own power or did not have the courage? Therefore this prayer invites God’s wisdom into our lives. We need wisdom daily to discern what we can and can’t change. We need wisdom to reveal to us what we should and shouldn’t be focusing our thoughts and emotions on. Overall, this is a great prayer for our own mental health. It helps us to truly discern how we should approach life. Here is a full text of the prayer: Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; 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. |