Serenity full prayer8/14/2023 In 1943, Niebuhr used the prayer in a sermon at Heath Evangelical Union Church in Heath, Massachusetts. It was composed sometime between 19 and grew highly popular in the 30s and 40s across church groups without proper attribution and recognition to Niebuhr. Who Wrote the Serenity Prayer?Īs noted previously, Reinhold Niebuhr is often the attributed author of the Serenity Prayer. God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,Īnd the wisdom to know the difference. So that I may be reasonably happy in this lifeĪmen. Trusting that He will make all things right "Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold." ~ Proverbs 3:13-14Īccepting hardships as the pathway to peace "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7 "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you he will never permit the righteous to be moved." Psalm 55:22 "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." ~ Isaiah 26:3 Be inspired to live with serenity through faith in Christ with these Bible verses about giving God our anxieties. How often have you seen The Serenity Prayer on a card or on a magnet and simply read the inspirational words without fully grasping its message? It's a powerful prayer, and we truly need to believe in each phrase for its wisdom to enhance our lives. In the early 1940s, the group Alcoholics Anonymous began to use a shortened version of the Serenity Prayer in their twelve-step program. Written by Reinhold Neibuhr in the 1930s, this prayer has been widely used in sermons, Sunday school groups, and studies. This prayer is one of the most well-known today, especially the shortened version below. We will bring our years of expertise, training, and experience to your life’s situation and we will help you find Serenity, Courage, and Wisdom.The Serenity Prayer is a prayer that asks God to grant acceptance, courage, and wisdom for things in our life we can't control. We will walk with you through uncertain and uneven times. We are experienced guides on Life’s journey. At The Relationship Center and Life Coaching, that is what we do for that is who we are. These are hard truths, and it helps to have a wise, experienced guide along the way-someone to walk with you who has trod the road before you. We can numb ourselves through addiction or denial so that we don’t have to face the reality that “hardship is the pathway to peace.” We can expend enormous amounts of emotional energy trying to remake the world as “we would have it,” not as it is. Our work with addiction, struggling marriages, affair recovery, divorce, anxiety, and depression drives home the Truths in this prayer every day.Īs the prayer states, we can get hung up trying to be “supremely happy” in this life. People with whom we work in our practice know that life is not easy and that easy answers and simplistic clichés do more harm than good. As Niebuhr would write, “The tragedy of man is that he can conceive self-perfection but cannot achieve it.” Hence, his clarion call for grace and forgiveness. Niebuhr was a practitioner of what came to be called “Christian Realism.” It is the opposite of both the “pie-in-the-sky” that was, in the words of one critic, “so heavenly minded it was no earthly good,” and the opposite of the naïve and irresponsible “prosperity gospel” that has become so popular in our day and age. When we see that famous first sentence in its full context, the Truths it conveys are much more rich and focused. 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. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. “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. Its insights are also crucial to work in marriage counseling and many types of individual therapy.īut, did you know that these familiar words are not the whole prayer? Here is the text of the whole prayer as Niebuhr wrote it. It has become an integral part of most, if not all, work with addiction and those who suffer with anxiety and depression. Literally millions of people are familiar with the Serenity Prayer: “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.”Īs we have discussed in our previous blogs, this prayer was composed by pastor and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930’s.
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