The Serenity Prayer. Full Text and Meaning

This beloved prayer has helped countless people to experience peace in their lives. Following is the Serenity Prayer in its entirety:

Here is the full Serenity prayer also known as the AA prayer in the Catholic version. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous read it enthusiastically and it really helps them:

The Full Serenity Prayer

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

Living one day at a time.
Enjoying one moment at a time.
Accepting hardships as a 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.

The meaning of Serenity Prayer

Today we’re going to be looking at one of the most famous and inspiring prayers of the 20th century, The Serenity Prayer. We’ll be looking at what the Serenity Prayer means and how we can use this prayer within our daily lives.

1. God grant me the serenity

Serenity means the quality of the states of being calm and peaceful. It’s something we all searched and longed for and in an age of self-help and mindfulness. And that search for inner peace it’s something which everybody identifies with.

However there are ways in a practical sense that we can find peace: There are of course having a restful day, having a lying listening to some peaceful music; doing some sort of gentle exercise… But the peace that this prayer talks about is a gift. It is a gift from God the serenity prayer is about the gift of peace. So firstly the prayer talks about accepting the things I cannot change.

And I see this as the WALL of the FALL and I have a very heavy brick here:

• This is the weight of what we live in in the world.
• This is the things we cannot change.
• This is the fact that we age as humans.
• This is the country that we’re born in and the stability, and the wealth of that country.
• This the weights of the genetic code of our inheritance that sometimes weighs us down…
• And the WALL of the FALL is so many things.

The prayer talks about the serenity to accept these things; and this talks about how we navigate this. And really we have to keep coming to God. We have to keep having a dialogue with Him about how hard it is to live with this weight. And by the miracle of his spirits and by the blood of Jesus God has the ability to take this weight from our shoulders.

Now it’s true that sometimes it’s only momentarily before we feel it again. It’s true that it’s a weight that comes back and we kind of revisit very many times in our lives. But it’s a weight that ultimately will be off us forever when we enter eternity.

2. To accept the things I cannot change;

The second line of the prayer is about having the serenity to change the things that we can. And you know Jesus is the key of change and renewal that The Holy Spirit within our lives can change the way we feel about our age. He can change the way that we cope with the country and the situation that we’re born in. The Holy Spirit can change the way we manage and cope with our physical inheritance of a body.

And it’s very important that we do seek the Holy Spirit to highlight and let us know what are the things we can’t change and what are these things that we can change. To give us the wisdom to know the difference. Because sometimes we begin to accept the things that really God wants us to change and the weight of those. And sometimes we need to be given the Grace and the peace to accept things that maybe we can’t change.

3. Living one day at a time

It goes on to talk about time and in particular in the Western world time has become a really intense thing. If you stop for a moment and just look at your own watch ticking away and have a think about what time means to you, it happens something very important. Because:

• we’re always trying to hold back time;
• we’re always trying to stop time;
• we’re always try to make more of time or to find time;
• and yet the only way that actually we really find peace within this area of what it is to be a human and live on this planet is to connect with the timeless nest of heaven.

This is a stoped watch, not been working for 10-15 years and we have to remember that eternity. And god it’s a completely different realm:

• outside of this phase,
• outside of this universe that we live in,
• that it’s outside of time

and so it’s as we connect with heaven as we pause and there’s our hearts connect with the eternal that we will really experience the serenity in this area of our lives, that we crave.

And finally Jesus came to walk here on earth. And when he came he came in, he walked through the rubbish of anger and hatred, the rubbish of bloodshed and tears, and disease, and mistrust he came here and he walked through this, and what was it that enabled him to walk through the depth of that rubbish? What was it that Jesus carried in his heart and he was God incarnate. So he carried the reality of heaven in his heart. He carried the love of the Father, he carried this great divine love within his heart.

4. So that I may be reasonably happy in this life

And the Serenity Prayer reminds us that when we to invite Jesus into our hearts we carry this love the same amazing divine incredible love within our hearts. That it’s that love that empowers through in the hardest times. It’s that love that enables us to be reasonably happy in this life. And to be incredibly happy within the next, to look forwards with hope. Always even in our last days to look forwards with that hope,

So, to sum up I’ve given you four images which do encapsulate some of what this prayer talks about:

1. The wall of the fall and how that’s very very difficult for us to hold and how we need the God’s Spirit to continually help us with that
2. We’ve talked about the keys of change and renewal which the Holy Spirit can work within our lives and bring newness and change into the areas which we are struggling with.
3. We’ve talked about a timeless connection to heaven, how that enables us to have peace in our hearts
4. And lastly we’ve talked about the rubbish and how actually it’s God’s love. God’s and divine love within us that carries us through

So I hope that’s been helpful today. This prayer is an awesome prayer I encourage you to listen to it to use it within your only daily prayer time to share it and to give it to others. Especially to those who don’t yet know the depth of Christ’s love for them.

There will be a link to embedded prayer film beneath here and do go to that and take some time out of your day to listen through to this prayer again.

If you will take a few moments and think about what may be keeping you from enjoying your life in the present.

For example:

• Worries and fears about tomorrow;
• Disappointed hopes or broken dreams;
• Relationships that have gone bad or ended;
• A bad habit or addiction;
• Anger or grudges against someone.

Now answer the following questions and write the answers HERE or down in the comments:

Is there anything I can do to change the situation? If so, I pray for the courage to change what I can. If there is nothing I can do to change the situation and is completely out of my control, I pray for God to help me accept what I cannot do anything about.

And also, I will pray that He gives me wisdom. So I wanna know when to take action and when to let it go and leave it in his hands. I will trust him. And as I do, my soul shall be calm and untroubled.

I will experience His wonderful peace that transcends all understanding. This is serenity.

Important links to connected sources: What’s wrong with the Serenity Prayer? * Where is the Serenity Prayer in the Bible? * What religion is the Serenity Prayer?