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FOR TODAY Read the following prayer: God, give me 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. Amen.
While this prayer is referred to as the Serenity Prayer it might be better titled the Strength Prayer for it asks eloquently for three elements needed in strength: serenity, courage and wisdom. While often associated with 12-step recovery programs, the collect was first recorded in the diary of a student who attributed it to his professor, Reinhold Niebuhr. More information about the prayer and its entirety can be found here. Sometimes we need strength to accept that life is beyond our control. Sometimes we need strength to be agents for change. And more often than not, we need the strength to know the difference. This is a reality we raise up today, on All Saints Day, as we remember those who have gone before us on this earthly sojourn.
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION From the prayer, which of the three aspects of strength - serenity, courage and wisdom - resonate most deeply in your life right now?
We often feel “small” or unable of being agents of big change. Yet, we know there is strength in numbers and in prayer. Please watch the National Service of Healing and Wholeness with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry today at 3pm CST to consider how and where you might be called to be an agent of change and healing. Tune in here.
In anticipation of the upcoming election, each day of this week we will invite you to pray an additional collect appointed from the Book of Common Prayer. Pray for every human heart Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
STRENGTHEN
This third week focuses on the word strengthen. Soon we will gather virtually for our Jubilee revival. We hope it will be a time that we are strengthened as the people of God. Asking for strength is a testament of our faith; strength is not merely of our own, it is a gift from God. It can be so easy for us to give into worry, fear or despair; yet with God we pray for strength and look forward to wonderful things like our upcoming revival. Find all previous daily devotionals here