"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."

-Reinhold Niebuhr

 

Many of us have heard of The Serenity Prayer. We might have even heard different versions of it and read the stories of its authorship, its use, and other narratives of its derivation and how it came to be. But regardless of the version that we use, or the story that we accept concerning its origin or its meaning, it is indeed not just a powerful prayer, but a way for us to approach life with the understanding that God is in full control. However, while we may have looked up this prayer to search for its authorship or origin, how many of us have ever tried to understand what "SERENITY" itself really means and how it correlates with our ability to let Go and let God? Let's Explore:

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Serenity is defined as:

• the state or quality of being serene, calm, or tranquil; sereneness,

• the absence of mental stress or anxiety,

• the quality of being peaceful and calm.

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How often do we find ourselves operating in a place of serenity? Especially concerning those things that we want to go away but they refuge to budge. How often do we operate in serenity when faced with the things that perplex us and make us feel like our lives are spiraling out of control? How often do we operate in serenity when God is orchestrating much like He does and we cannot choose our call, our path, or the plan that He has for us. How often do we operate in serenity when we know that the cup cannot be taken away and we therefore must allow God's will to be done?

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The answer is: IT IS EXTREMELY HARD! As thought-provoking and affirming as The Serenity Prayer is, it is far easier to recite than it is to truly act out and apply it into our lives and amidst our circumstances. If we think of the definition of serenity and focus on the fact that serenity represents calm, tranquility, and lack of stress or anxiety, we know without doubt that God Himself promises us serenity, but we won't find it worded as such in His Word. In His Word, God promises us peace.

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The Promise of Peace       

 

Out of all the things that we might find ourselves putting on our prayer requests list amongst the material things or amongst the requests for healing, protection, prosperity, restoration, vindication, and assurance, the one thing that we might often fail to make a request for is peace. We tend to unintentionally underestimate the power and effects that peace can have on our lives.

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Peace is so seamless that we don't often recognize it until we find ourselves in a quiet place. It is quite often when we do a self-check and reflect on what we feel or where we are that we recognize that we have found it. At times it's when we take the time to take a step back and breathe that we realize, "Wow, I'm not the least bit worried!" or "I don't understand it but I'm as content as can be!". It is in these moments that we recognize that we have found peace and become amazed and proud of ourselves that we have been able to "Let Go" and "Let God". It is in these moments that we have finally accepted that there are some things that we have no control over so we must simply let them be! What is interesting about peace is that although we may not automatically recognize when it makes its entrance into our circumstances, we most definitely recognize when it's not present.

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What I Cannot Change!         

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"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…"​

 

Peace Concerning What We Can't Change? And this is for many of us, the hardest part of The Serenity Prayer. Accepting that which we cannot change. Accepting that which we have no control over. Accepting that no matter who we are, what we are, what we have, who we have, what we know, what we don't know, what we like or dislike, or what we want, none of it matters when God has a plan. And the fact attached to that is that GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN!

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There are some things that we just plain ole' don't want to accept. It is hard to accept having to lose the ones that we love. It is hard to accept having to let go of some things. It is hard to accept that there are some places we can't go, some things that we can't have, and some things that we must keep although we may not want them. When things are taken away from us, it can at times make us feel deprived, defeated, and in some cases might even make us feel like we are being punished, even if those things or people that we have had to lose or let go of were for our best or theirs. It can make us feel inferior, rejected, and unworthy when we have to remain in things or amongst people when we feel like there is something more rewarding, something more appeasing, or someone better waiting for us. Whether having to let go or hold on to what we don't want to let go of or hold on to, it all processes in our hearts and our minds as a defeat, as a loss.

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If we think of having to lose something, the fact is that losing anything can make us feel like we are at a loss even if losing that very thing had to happen in order for us to in essence gain something or someone different, greater, better, and/or needed. Job had to lose some people and some things, but in the end, he gained more than he had before. And why his story inspires us and gives us hope, while his story teaches us the reward of relentless trust in God and the importance of hope and dependency on Him, many of us still would not want to endure what Job endured. We rebuke the troubles that Job endured while at the same time we marvel at his blessings. We all want an abundant blessing for our troubles, but we don't want the troubles that are going to bring the abundant blessing. The funny thing is that we don't want to have to let go of our wants, our dreams, our goals, our desires, or our loved ones or possessions because it is too painful to let go of these people or things yet in the same sense many of us don't want to have to hold on to our wants, our dreams, our goals, our desires, or our loved ones or possessions because they at times require too much of an investment, heartache, and work to keep. WE ARE NEVER SATISFIED!

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Whether we choose to accept it or not, none of us have the ability to change everything. Only God does. As much as we might wholeheartedly follow God and do everything that He requires of us, there will still be things that we don't like. There will still be things that we don't want to have to go through. There will be positions and responsibilities that we might not want. There will be people who we don't want to work for, work with, or be attached to regardless of how we are connected to them. There will still be things that we have no control over. There will still be things that WE CANNOT change. However, the upside to that is that THERE WILL STILL BE GOD, HE WILL STILL BE IN CONTROL, and THERE WILL STIILL BE HIS PROMISE OF PEACE.

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What good does it due us to do what God tells us to do but don't accept what He has told us to do. At times, many of us might find ourselves much like Jonah. Coming to a point in which we follow God's instructions but because we don't accept what it is that He has told us to do, we remain stuck in our feelings therefore leaving us stuck in a place called 'waiting'.

Jonah's feelings concerning God's decision not to bring destruction on Nineveh caused him to sit and wait to see what would happen. He was sitting and waiting to see destruction that he was not going to presently see because God had relented.

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How many of us are 'stuck' still waiting on God to do what we want Him to do because we refuse to accept that our plan and His plan are not the same? How many of us are 'stuck' waiting for God to change His mind about something that He has already made clear is not His desire for us? How many of us are still 'stuck' waiting on God to fix a relationship that He has already taken us out of and away from because it's not who He wants for us, although it's who we want for ourselves? How many of us are 'stuck' hoping and waiting for a different family, significant other, or different friends, when God has already told us to tough it out and trust Him to work it out? No matter how hard we try or how much we pray we must accept that our family is who they are. As much as we might at times wish we were from a different family, one who perhaps understood us more, appreciated us more, supported us more, loved us more, or encouraged us more, we cannot change the family that we were born into. At times God will give us the separation that we need and at other times He will leave us amongst those we may not want to be around because He has a plan of His own (Consider what Joseph endured). We will quite often find that the things we want to replace, we can’t and the things that we have to replace, we don't want to.

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Much like Jonah, and much like many of us have already experienced, it is hard to have peace concerning something that you don't want to accept. But then THERE'S God who can help us get there. The opening of the Serenity Prayer is "GOD GRANT ME…" The author acknowledged that it was by God and with God that we could do this. We most definitely need God to grant us serenity because we cannot do it alone especially when it is requiring us to let go of what we want or hold on to what we don't want. We most definitely need God to grant us peace.

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Grant is defined as:

• to consent to carry out for a person: allow fulfillment of,

• to permit as a right, privilege, or favor,

• to bestow or transfer formally,

• to be willing to concede.

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We need God to allow peace to be fulfilled within us, we can't do it on our own. We must recognize and understand that God's peace is a privilege, a favor. It's something that He does not have to give us, but He so graciously does. We know that His peace is His to give as He so pleases. God's peace is a gift, it is an honor, and a blessing. Psalm 29:11 tells us that, "The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace" (NIV). God is all powerful and in Him and through Him we can find strength. There is nothing too big or too small for God to fix, alter, attend to, or handle. Regardless of what goes on around us, while we have no control, God has ALL CONTROL!​ This is why we can trust Him and turn every care, worry, burden, and concern over to Him. Especially those things that we find hard to accept. Those things that cause us to lose sleep and toss and turn. Those things that steal our joy and increase our pain. Those things that make us feel like all we have to give is another sad story of what we did not receive, what we did not conquer, or what we did not achieve. And while that may be the story that we claim and while that might be the story that we tell, that is not God's story for us.

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When we place our trust in God and accept that what we can't change He can still control, what appeared our sorrowful story becomes our story of provision, our story of triumph, and our story of success because we understand that everything turning out in the way that we want it to is not what makes it good but what makes it good is the fact that God allowed it. And not only did God allow it, but He attached an intent to it which means that even when we cannot control it, even when we can't change it, and even when we don't want to accept it, if we seek God and recognize His inability to fail, we can find refuge and peace to accept whatever it is that God is allowing.

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Philippians 4:6-7 reads, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (NKJV).

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In understanding and accepting what we cannot change, we can then take these things to God releasing every worry, every fear, and every doubt, letting Him know what it is that we need, what it is that we hope for, and what it is that we desire, with a heart that is not just dependent on Him but that is grateful toward Him. We can go before Him with a heart that is full of thanks simply because He is who He is. And as we do this, placing our full hope, our full trust, and our full focus on Him, He will give us peace. A peace beyond our own power and capabilities and a peace that transcends our own understanding and comprehension because His peace is the type of peace in which we are not placing our hope or allowing our peace to be driven by what we understand but we are allowing ourselves to be guided by the Spirit of God, allowing our peace to be rooted in the fact that GOD KNOWS WHAT WE DON'T.

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Peace that surpasses our understanding is one in which we don't have to have the answers, nor do we need to understand or make sense of what surrounds us, what we are experiencing, or the who, what, when, where, how, or whys involved. But we are trusting that God has all those things in His control and authority through His infinite wisdom, power, and knowledge.

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One of the reasons that we struggle to accept what we cannot change is because we look at things based on our own understanding of them. What makes sense to God often makes no sense to us. And what makes sense to us, makes God realize how much we truly need Him. Solomon in Proverbs 3:5 instructs, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding;" (KJV). Solomon was given wisdom from God that was unmatched. There was never another before or after him that had the wisdom that he did. God bestowed upon him a wise and understanding heart. Solomon realized that it was from God that his wisdom and knowledge came which is why in this proverb we find him instructing his son to place his full trust in God.

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Solomon understood that he would not have been able to make the proper judgments unless God gave him the wisdom and understanding that he needed. This is why he instructed his son not to lean on his own understanding, his natural understanding, but to trust God and allow God to lead, guide, and direct him. And we must do the same.

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As long as we try to make sense of things based on what we think we know, we won't be able to accept what we cannot change because we will constantly think that we have the power to control and change things that we can't. We will think that we know better than God does.

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Solomon understood that there were things that he had to accept. In 1 Kings 3:6-9 (NKJV) we read:

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    And Solomon said: 'You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth,      in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have              given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my      father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people      whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an              understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great        people of Yours?'

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Solomon, although young, understood that there were things that he could not change. Solomon understood who his father was and all the great and mighty works that God had performed through his father, David. Solomon had to accept that He was the successor to a king like no other. His father was both a king, warrior, and man after God's own heart. It would not be easy to fill those shoes. Solomon had this great responsibility that was placed upon him that he could not run away from or escape. The throne was now his and no matter how young he was, he was the king.

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Not only did David choose Solomon to succeed him but most importantly, God chose Solomon, which Solomon acknowledged and was fully aware of. Solomon had to accept the place in which he was chosen to rule and the people that he was chosen to rule over. Solomon had enough wisdom to recognize he was in a place that God had ordained and because he could not change being in that place, he had to accept his position and lean and depend on God to guide him through. He depended on God to help him to navigate this place that he now found himself in. He depended on God to give him the understanding that he needed to have in order to carry out what it is that God had commissioned him to do.

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As we reflect on David and his son, Solomon, another blessing of the peace of God lies in God's Son, Jesus. If we reflect back on verse 7 of Philippians 4 it states, "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (NKJV). This facet of the verse also speaks to the awe of God's omniscience. Our thoughts are not His thoughts nor His ways, our ways. It speaks to us not being on the same level as God. It speaks to His infinite knowledge and wisdom.

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We will never be able to dissect every single facet about God nor comprehend the way in which He orchestrates things. It is not possible for any of us to figure Him out. His peace is beyond our level of comprehension and most importantly, His peace is greater than our understanding because it has the power to hold, secure, and carry us even when we are not able to grasp what we are going through.

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His peace surpasses our understanding because it is stronger than our understanding. His peace surpasses our understanding because His peace allows us to keep moving beyond what we can't see, grasp, decipher, decode, or explain. Regardless of what we can't understand, God's peace pushes our focus away from our circumstance and shifts it toward Him. God's peace also conquers our lack of understanding. And it is this peace that brings calm, comfort, and rest to our hearts and our minds. It is His peace that keeps and prevents us from slipping, falling, and doing things our way, taking things into our own hands. It is His peace that guards us from our own mistakes and self-destruction. And we have this peace through His Son, Christ Jesus.

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Because of the sacrifice of Jesus' life, it is through him that His Father, Our God can rest within us. It is through the Son that this Spirit of Peace can find a place in our hearts and minds so that we can then find refuge and security in Him amidst whatever it is that we are facing. We don't have to be anxious, worry, or lose heart because we have a God who can do all things who sent us His Son who conquered all things, which means that regardless of what we must face whether self-inflicted or purpose driven, we cannot be destroyed when we choose to hand it over to Him and trust Him to do what He does. God will see us through. God will make a way. God will always provide. God will rescue, deliver, and save us. The greatest thing about God's peace rests in His gift of salvation.

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In Isaiah 9:6, the prophecy was foretold, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (NIV).

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In John 14:27 we read, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (NIV).

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We were given the promise of the Prince of Peace in Isaiah 9 and in John 14 here it is, the Prince of Peace himself, speaking to his disciples about this very peace that we can all gain through him because of the sacrifice of his life. And the time between the promise of peace and the coming of peace himself, were far from instant. There was a 'waiting period'.

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Although Jesus was aware that he would have to physically depart from his disciples, he was leaving his peace with them. Not just his peace in terms of comfort but upon enduring the cross and upon his resurrection, that peace would then abide in them by His Spirit. We have this same gift.

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The peace that the world gives cannot reside in us like the peace of God does. The peace that Jesus gives is not something tangible. His peace is not about wiping away troubles as much as it is about the assurance in our ability to overcome them and to not be swayed away from God amidst them. His peace is the assurance of what we gained because of what he endured. Our peace from him is the assurance of the Father resting, ruling, and abiding in us. The peace that he spoke of was about understanding the glory that rests in the will of God even concerning those things that seem like they can't be survived. There are things that are hard to tolerate, yet when they are the will of God for us, we survive the intolerable.

 

The strikes and piercings to Jesus' body were indeed painful, something that we ourselves would not have been able to tolerate or endure. We reflect on what he endured and think of how painstakingly cruel, painful, and tragic a circumstance it was, but yet he conquered it. Just when those who crucified him thought that they had finally gotten rid of their greatest challenge, HE SIMPLY ROSE with a vengeance. And that vengeance was victory. Not just for himself, not just for us, but a victory that speaks to the awe, wonder, love, and compassion of the God whom we serve! A victory that gives us hope in our darkest hours. A victory that speaks to us amidst our fear and gives us the courage to face the mountain that stands before us with faith in the God that walks beside us. The peace that Jesus gives us is the peace of an unbreakable bond graced unto us through him, connecting us to God. What we our human selves view as such a tragic circumstance was really our joy in disguise.

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It is hard to think of someone else's pain having the ability to both save us and bring us joy. It is hard to think of someone else's pain having the ability to give us hope. It seems cruel to rejoice in the pain that someone else suffered even if their pain resulted in a benefit that we gained. However, Jesus' pain, his sacrifice, does just that for us. His pain fulfilled promise, but what about ours?

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The peace that Jesus gives us is one that rests in assurance. The peace that Jesus was speaking to his disciples about was also letting them know that regardless of what lied ahead, it was in God's hands. It was the will of God. Jesus was trying to get them to understand that they might not like what lied ahead and that as things began to happen, they might become disheartened, but he did not want their hearts to be troubled by it, he did not want them to fear it, nor did he want them to lose hope and become discouraged because of it. Jesus was letting his disciples know that all would be well. The events that were going to occur would not appear as good, but when it was all said and done, it would be well because he would have accomplished what God sent him to do and it was up to them to continue the work. But what about us?

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It was not the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, the chief priests, the people, or the elders that sent Jesus to the cross. IT WAS GOD AND GOD ALONE! He simply used the hatred, wickedness, deceitfulness, pride, and envy of all those involved to get him there. Jesus could not change his situation therefore he had to find peace in it. And it is this same peace that has now been given to us to grab ahold to when we find ourselves having to bear what we cannot accept or change! We must have faith in the fact that God sometimes uses our pain to fulfill promise just as he did concerning His Son. We must have faith in the fact that regardless if it concerns the things that we have already faced, the things that we are currently facing, or those things that we have yet to encounter, GOD HAS ALREADY MADE THEM WELL! We just have to wait it out.

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Peace that Keeps Us!        

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"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you." -Isaiah 26:3 (NIV)

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Life will hurt. It will at times be hard to grasp. Jesus' scars were very real. They tore through his flesh. His blood was shed. He did not just feel when he was being hit and spit on, but he also felt the scorn, the cruelty, the judgment, the ridicule, and the rejection. He felt both physical and emotional agony. And when the will of God began to feel like punishment, and he began to feel abandoned, like God was not there, just like us, he then felt forsaken. But amidst feeling all of this, he still felt obligated to go forward so that we could receive what God had promised us. He accepted the will of God that could not be changed and though feeling this very real feeling of "God where are you?", he trusted. He was able to have peace amidst his pain knowing that although feeling abandoned, he was still in the will of God, and he therefore gave up his spirit to align with God's will for him. He was steadfast.

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Steadfast is defined as:

• not changing in your attitudes or aims,

• someone who is firm and determined in a belief or a position,

• firm in allegiance to a person, belief, or cause.

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It is through our ability to trust God that we become steadfast which allows us to experience peace that does not relent. No matter how much God promises us His peace, if we refuse to trust Him, we will never be able to experience His peace because if we don't trust Him, it will be hard for us to recognize that His way is better. It will be hard for us to accept that not only does He have a plan but that He will make a way. It will be hard for us to have any faith that where we are or where we've been, were part of His plan for us. And we will wrestle with trusting that "BETTER" days are coming and better seasons lie await. In order for God's peace to keep us, we must establish and keep our trust and hope in Him. Despite his suffering, Jesus' aim did not change. Jesus stood firm in his belief of who he was. He was the Son of God, The Chosen One, The Messiah, the one who would save us all. And he did just that!

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Apply It!                 

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We can recite The Serenity Prayer all we want to. We can affirm all things positive. But what happens when we are placed in a situation in which we are forced to make those words very real? What happens when something stands before us that we cannot change? Do we fight against it like Jonah, or do we accept that God has a plan like Joseph did?

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Joseph had absolutely no control over what he had to face. The only thing that he could control was his reaction in regard to what he faced and his trust in God. We know nothing about Joseph's conversations or prayers to God as he endured the things that he did. We don't see him having a Job moment in which he was crying out to God trying to make sense of where he was or trying to figure out how long God would take to come to his rescue, but we know without doubt that whatever it took, he trusted in God, he was strengthened by God, and he had a peace that many of us cannot fathom.

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Joseph and Job most definitely had those stories that if they were a television drama would make us question the sanity of the writers and what in their minds would make them create a plot in which someone would have to keep going through so much sorrow.​ And how often do we find ourselves right there? Questioning what in the world God is thinking. Questioning how strong does God think we are. Questioning how anything that we are facing will equate to something that we will one day rejoice in. All the while wishing that we could simply change the channel because there is nothing entertaining about our real-life drama.

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We ask God to grant us the peace to accept that which we cannot change not realizing that in order for Him to give us peace to accept what we cannot change, He is going to have to place something in our lives that is going to put us face-to-face with something that WE CANNOT CHANGE! He is going to have to put us face-to-face with something unpeaceful.

 

Experiencing peace is going to come through the form of overcoming a problem, a difficulty, a setback, or a challenge, that we won't be able to escape. Before peace, there will be chaos, turmoil, worry, fear, anxiety, despair, or whatever it is that is the opposite of peace. God's peace is very real but our ability to trust Him has to be just as real in order for that peace to operate in us how He intended it to.

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What Does it Mean to Accept?…      

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Accept is defined as:

• to agree to take something,

• receive willingly something given or offered,

• to say yes to an offer or invitation,

• to respond or answer affirmatively to,

• to undertake the responsibility, duties, honors, etc., of,

• to accommodate or reconcile oneself to,

• to receive without adverse reaction.

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There are many more definitions of 'accept' but just with these alone, they reveal something to us that is both profound and thought-provoking. "God grant me the [peace] to accept the things I cannot change…"

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God Grant me The [Peace] to 'Accept':

• God grant me the peace to 'agree to take what you allow to come at me'.

• God grant me the peace to 'willingly receive the trial you have me in'.

• God grant me the peace to 'say yes to your will'.

• God grant me the peace to 'respond by proclaiming victory and not defeat'.

• God grant me the peace to 'undertake the responsibility of the purpose that you have for me'.

• God grant me the peace to 'accommodate those things in my life that you desire of me so that I can do what you need me to do and commit to you in the way that you require'. God grant me the peace to 'know that even when I fall short reconciliation is possible and salvation is free because your Son has paid the price for my mistakes'.

• God grant me the peace to 'not work in opposition of your plan for me'.

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If we reflect on the definitions of 'accept' and replace the word 'accept' with these definitions in the part of The Serenity Prayer that we are focusing on, can you now see what we are asking God to grant us the ability to do when we recite this prayer?

 

This is no small task! When we dissect it as such, can you see why we struggle to do as we recite? Can you now see the depth of the undertaking involved in "God Grant me the Peace to ACCEPT what I CANNOT CHANGE?! Can you now see why it may seem that when we pray to God asking for certain things, life seems to go all kinds of Upside Down and Inside Out? What we are asking for are things that don’t come via pretty pictures.

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So How do We Get There?        

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How do we get there? And the honest truth to that question rests in four words because the answer is GOD AND GOD ALONE! Many people can give you step-by-step guides, advice, and how-to manuals but the truth is that simply reading it won't get you there. YOU STILL NEED GOD!

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While we may find strength, motivation, and encouragement from the Word of God, from the books and blogs that we read, the songs that we sing, the sermons that we hear, or the podcasts that we listen to, we still need God to lead and guide us, to order our steps, and to give us the strength to not just accept what we cannot change but to accept His peace, by accepting His plan for us. We must allow God to penetrate us in a way that allows His peace to truly settle within us.

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Jesus had disciples and regardless of how much he taught them or how many miracles they saw him perform, he at times had to place them in moments in which they had to live out what he taught them so that they could understand it in the way that they needed to in order to make it real to them. In order to make it personal. The Serenity Prayer can move mountains in our lives if we learn how to make it personal. If we learn how to apply it into our lives so that it speaks to our real-life encounters.

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We can be inspired by things yet still lose our hope if we don't take those things that inspire and encourage us and place God at the center of them. Whether The Serenity Prayer, The Lord's Prayer, or that prayer of peace, protection, healing, prosperity, or direction, that we pray, we will miss the benefit of those prayers if we have no trust, faith, or hope in God or His ability to fulfill whatever it is that we are praying for.

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Regardless of what it is that we are praying for, we at times can all benefit by first asking God to help our unbelief before we even begin to pray because without realizing it, we might often go into prayer with our hearts full of unbelief that we will see the manifestation of what we are asking for. If we were to be honest with ourselves and truly reflect, how often do we pray out of comfort or habit versus real expectation that we are going to get what we have requested or inquired of God?

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Before we pray, we can perhaps benefit by first asking God to encourage our hearts and to help us to release whatever we are carrying that's hindering our ability to turn over to Him whatever it is that we are about to pray for.

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We can perhaps benefit by first talking to God, laying all our truths, our worries, and our frustrations at His feet so that we can pray from a place that says and proclaims, "GOD IT'S YOURS!".

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We can perhaps benefit by being real enough to say, "God I'm struggling to have faith in what I'm praying for because this thing is too far beyond my ability to handle so help me to understand how to accept your peace."

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We are not perfect and our truth whether we "accept it or not" is that we pray but we don't always believe. We pray but we don't let go. We pray but we remain burdened by the very things that we are praying for. We pray yet we still have fear. We pray yet we still have doubt. We pray yet we still have anger and resentment about where we are. But God sees. He knows. And He will help us.​ If we allow Him to, He will not just honor our requests, but He will give us the strength, faith, and patience that we need to trust Him to answer what we have requested and inquired of Him. If we reach out to Him and trust and acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will strengthen and uphold us via all His ways. We cannot do it alone. WE NEED GOD and it is within that fact that we should realize that the most powerful words in The Serenity Prayer are those first three words..."GOD GRANT ME"!