Serenity Prayer

The Serenity Prayer is a short Christian prayer asking God for three things — serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Its short form is among the most-quoted prayers in English and is closely associated with Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs, but it is prayed far more widely than that.

The Serenity Prayer was written by the American theologian and pastor Reinhold Niebuhr, most likely in the early 1940s. Niebuhr's daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, wrote a full history of the prayer's authorship. A version was first published in 1943; the prayer was picked up by Alcoholics Anonymous shortly after and spread from there.

The full version, written by Reinhold Niebuhr, continues past the familiar first sentence: "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." The full text is above.

Pray it slowly, one line at a time. Start with "serenity" — name something you cannot change and set it in God's care. Move to "courage" — name one thing you can do today, even if it's small. End with "wisdom" — ask God to help you tell the two apart. Praying it once as words on a page is fine; praying it as an honest inventory turns it into something more.

No. It's widely used in recovery, but the prayer names something universal: most of our anxiety lives in the overlap between what we can control and what we can't. Whether you're facing an illness, a difficult family season, a big decision, or an ordinary hard week, the same three requests — serenity, courage, wisdom — will meet you where you are.

The Serenity Prayer itself is not in the Bible — it was written by Reinhold Niebuhr in the 20th century. But nearly every line of it is rooted in Scripture: the invitation to hand our worries to God (1 Peter 5:7 and Philippians 4:6–7), the wisdom promised to those who ask (James 1:5), the courage God offers in fear (Joshua 1:9), and Jesus's own instruction not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). The prayer distills those verses into a form short enough to pray in the moment you need them.

In Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs, the Serenity Prayer opens and often closes meetings, and members are encouraged to pray it privately — especially in the moments they'd normally reach for their addiction. The prayer maps almost exactly onto the first three steps: admitting powerlessness (serenity), turning one's life over to God's care (surrender), and taking the next right action (courage). Millions of people have prayed it as a daily anchor for decades of sobriety.

"God" — the whole prayer is spoken to a real Person, not to the universe. "Grant me" — this is a request, not a resolution I can produce on my own. "The serenity to accept the things I cannot change" — asking not for less trouble but for a quieter heart in the middle of it. "The courage to change the things I can" — the small step I have been avoiding today. "And the wisdom to know the difference" — the hardest of the three, because most of my anxiety comes from confusing the two. Praying the words slowly, one clause at a time, is often what unlocks their meaning.

Pray it at the start of the day to set the day's tone; in the middle of the day when a specific worry starts running loops in your head; and at the end of the day before bed, as a way to hand back what you were not able to fix. Some people pray it every time they feel a spike of frustration — the words are short enough to fit into a breath. Others pray Niebuhr's fuller version once a week as a longer meditation. There's no wrong time.