Week 9 - Day 5 - Living In Serenity.
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Lets begin by reading the Serenity Prayer again.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. 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.
In Jesus name. Amen.”
As we continue to unpack the serenity prayer we find ourselves at the crossroads in this healing prayer. Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will,
For many of us, and I am speaking from personal experience, this is the pivotal point not only in this prayer, but in life and therefore in our walk of faith with Jesus. The two key words here are trust and surrender.
I find myself pondering this all day and every day. How do you break a lifetime habit of trying to fix everything in your own way based on your own solution when you don’t really understand what the problem is? I mean this is exhausting and yet we hang on to this notion that we can do it on our own. We don’t need anyones help; we don’t need God.
Imagine being in a muddy trench in Europe on the Western Front in 1918. You have been locked in bloody warfare for four long years. You are always wet and cold and the carnage has become such a part of your daily routine that you are becoming numb to the trauma. Decimated by a barrage of shell fire your company looks across no mans land to see thousands of enemy troops charging at you with their bayonets flashing. How will you survive this? Will you survive this? In those few frantic moments that are left before the onslaught arrives, you come to a life changing conclusion. You just can’t do this anymore!
Realising you have had enough and you just want it to end, you make a life changing decision. You just don’t care anymore and as the enemy spill into your trench, you throw down your weapon and raise your hands. At that moment you don’t care if you die or are captured…..you are at the end of your rope.
Then as a bayonet is put to your chest you say, ‘no more, I surrender.’ Then you wait. The soldier holding the bayonet has a quick decision to make. Does his adrenalin kick in and does he run you through? Or does his other centred love, his compassion take over and he utters those longed for words; ‘For you the war is over?’ You are hoping that he has had enough of the carnage too and one more death will not solve anything.
Having heard his compassion you relax into a feeling of complete surrender. A feeling of ‘I am sick of the war and sick of the fighting, do with me what you will. I am done.’
Put yourself there and imagine how that feels. I know how that feels. I have been there several times.
When the surrendered army is taken from the front, and if the Geneva convention regarding the treatment of captured soldiers is applied, then you will be received into a camp to be repaired and replenished to ultimately be repatriated to your home and your family.
I have long held the belief that my strength lies in my vulnerability. I have learned to surrender to my humanity and live my life in the light. The light not only of Jesus but the light of truth about myself. I long ago surrendered to the simple fact that I am flawed and I am not alone. We all are. So why are we pretending? What’s the point of trying to impress others when the truth is ‘what others think about me is none of my business.’ God Himself knows my heart. He is the one who knows the real truth about me and I now know that He is with me every moment. For me the most difficult part is remembering that and surrendering to it. I still fight wars not only in the public square but in my conscience. But I accept that Jesus covers me because he loves me and in that I am strong because as our verse for the week tells me; Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Questions
- Can you grow to trust God to take you where you need to go with your life?
- Do you just Him to steer you through the shallows into a safe harbour where you can live into your God given destiny?
- Are you ready to surrender those things that cause you pain and pollute the climate of your life to Jesus?
Prayer
Dear Lord, Papa God.
Help me to trust You. Help me to trust the others you bring into my life. Bring people into my life who love me for all the right reasons, because I am yours and so are they. Help me to find my strength in you and help me to surrender all those things that weigh me down and trip me up. Papa my greatest desire is to trust you and surrender. I know it’s hard for me to break the cycle but I know that You can and will if I surrender to Your will for my life. Help me to make the right choices I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Graham Hood
