7 ways the Serenity Prayer improves your life

7 ways the Serenity Prayer improves your life will show you the value of prayer and how to apply it to your life.

The serenity prayer is often mistaken for being a prayer that’s found in the bible. However, that is not the case. You can read more about the prayer here: Digging deeper into the Serenity Prayer.

I can remember having the shortened version of this prayer on my bedroom wall when I was young. It looked pretty and sounded like a great prayer to say. It seemed to cover all the details in a teenage girl’s mind.

Turns out, it’s so much more than words on a page that sound good. Because no matter how great the words are, the power of our prayers is in our faith. So let’s dig into living out the serenity prayer.

Full Serenity Prayer

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

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 Meaning & Value

The Oxford definition for serenity is the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.

This is an incredible prayer for trusting in God and receiving His peace.

Life can be really hard, challenging and unpredictable in many ways. These circumstances can easily steal the peace or “serenity” from our lives.

In my opinion, the serenity prayer is a prayer of release, vulnerability and acceptance. A prayer that brings peace and solace to our mind and spirit because we fully trust and have faith in God.

Having faith doesn’t always mean that our circumstances change. God is not a genie in a bottle and we ought not attempt to cut deals with God.

The value of prayer is the ability to communicate with God.

Kneeling before our Father in heaven in prayer is an honor and should be regarded with much respect.

This is a great opportunity to evaluate your prayer life. Is prayer an integral part of your life or is it occasional based on your needs?

Some of the reasons that we pray is to have relationship with, serve, honor, obey and demonstrate our faith in God. We also pray because Jesus prayed and actually commands us to pray as well.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray always. To communicate with God, through prayer about everything, always.

We praise God for all He’s done, what He’s doing and what He will do. Through prayer we ask forgiveness of sin, we pray for guidance, wisdom and strength to overcome. We pray for others, we petition our requests and pray for healing.

Instead of worrying, pray. Rather than taking on the weight of the world, leave your worries at the feet of Jesus.

The Serenity prayer is aligning ourselves with the wisdom of God and His plan for our lives. Living fully as He would expect us to and anticipating His promise of eternal life. So this prayer, just like any other, when prayed with a faithful heart is quite powerful.

7 Ways the Serenity Prayer improves your life

#1 Identifying change. Praying for wisdom and discernment to know the difference between / to accept what can’t be changed and the courage to change what needs to be changed in our lives. I believe change is good, but change can be hard. Being aligned with God’s Spirit can give us clear guidance on what needs to change in our lives.

#2 Living live fully and joyfully. Jesus said “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow” you can read the whole verse here. We’re given today, let’s not take our time for granted. Live one day at a time and enjoy each moment. This is truly wisdom. I believe Jesus wants our lives to be full of serenity, for He says do not worry. I also believe Jesus wants our lives to be full of love, for He says we are the light of the world.

#3 Longsuffering. Longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit and I believe that’s because we need His spiritual strength to have longsuffering. To “suffer-long” patiently, enduring trials. But scripture tells us that tribulation produces perseverance and the testing of our faith produces patience. We are not alone in our suffering, God is with us and He encourages us along the way. See Romans 5 and James 1:2-8.

#4 Accepting. Acceptance is believing that God who created the heavens and the earth, has a plan specifically for your life. Acceptance recognizes that God is in control. Therefore, we submit ourselves to His will.

“We’re prone to want God to change our circumstances, but He wants to change our character. We think peace comes from the outside in, but it comes from the inside out.” – Warren Wiersbe

#5 Trusting. Living in serenity = trusting God. Trusting God makes me think of Psalm 23 because “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear nothing” like, that’s trust. Also, my favorite verse, Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and not your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path”.

#6 Surrender. Laying down our life for a greater plan, God’s will. Paul said “to live is Christ, to die is gain” Philippians 1:21 Because when we die to our flesh and live in His Spirit, we gain life more abundantly. And the promise to the believer that to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ is truth that we hold near to our heart and find much joy and excitement over.

#7 Eternal perspective. “And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.” Read full verse here. Believers eagerly wait to hear the words “Welcome, good and faithful servant” this is our driving force in fighting the good fight of faith.

I hope you enjoyed 7 ways the Serenity prayer improves your life. Do you struggle with any of the 7 ways listed?

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Digging deeper into the Serenity Prayer and Choose Life Series