Today, I picked up a bookmark that read:

Prayer of Serenity

God, 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

I went through a tough stretch of emotional distress recently. I was unhappy about my life. I was unhappy about my family, my friends, my singlehood etc. I wished that my family could understand me better. I wished that my friends could communicate more with me. I wished that I needn’t be lonely and had a partner. Having disliked my current situation, I just wanted things to be different, things to be the way I like it to be.

I cried and I complained and blamed people around me for the situation I’m in. I threw in all the ‘ifs’. If this was so, I wouldn’t be like that. If that was so, I wouldn’t be in such a state.

I was lacking in Serenity (Peace), Courage and Wisdom.

The feeling of needing to change my current situation is a tell-tale sign of a lack of peace in my heart. I tried to fill my schedule with things to do, so as to improve myself in this way and that way. I was too overweight, so I needed to run and lose some weight, and that’s so people would look at me differently, so that I would have more self-confidence, so that I could communicate better with people, so that I could get attached to someone again, fast. That was how my thought-process went. There wasn’t any peace that I could get until my ultimate desire/need be fulfilled. Hence, I was in bouts of restlessness, even during the nights.

Phil 4:6-7 -‘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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’

By these 2 verses, I need to commit my desires/ needs to the Lord and not try to work it all out by my own efforts. I need to stop being anxious about changing my situation by myself, but let wait upon the Lord to let him change me. Meanwhile, I should accept the things that I cannot change. One day, the Lord will grant me my needs, whenever He wills.

I also needed courage to change the things I can. There are some bad habits in my life which are contributing to the distress I’m feeling and inevitably, the stagnation of not progressing towards my goal – which is having my needs met. I need courage also, on top of grace, to know that these things can be changed. Effort also has to be put in to struggle towards the direction of my goal.

The very essence of courage is strength. The lack of courage to change things I can is a lack of strength to make the first move to.

Is 40: 29-31 – ‘He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increase power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.’

This is my prayer as I wait upon the Lord for His strength to rise in me. Oh how wonderful it would be to experience the strength of the Lord lifted a weary, weak soul of a young man, to change the things that is causing him to be weary and tired, and to change the things that is causing him to stumble badly.

Finally, there is also the need for wisdom know the difference between what I can’t change and what I can. It would be disastrous to accept the things I can change and try so hard to change the things I can’t. That’s where I need the wisdom of God to come in. And this wisdom, only the Lord can grant.

Paul prayed in Col 1:9-10 for the Colossians: ‘…we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Oh how I need to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding! Only then can I walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and bear fruit which is to practice the first 2 disciplines of accepting the things I can’t change and having courage to change the things I can.

May the Lord help me!

Advertisement