Seeking Serenity by Trevor HudsonSýnishorn

Our heart’s true home

We live helter-skelter lives. Each day we are pulled to and fro by our circumstances, both good and bad. We skip from one thing to another. We get drawn in many directions all at once. We feel at the mercy of events beyond our control. And, more often than not, we are. 

In the midst of this chaos and confusion, we need a safe, serene and secure place where we can continually dwell. To know real peace, our hearts need to find their true home. Jesus pointed toward such a home when He gave us the image of the vine and the branches and said, “Abide in me, and I in you” (verse 4, ASV). 

The image of the vine and the branches reveals the remarkable depths of intimate friendship with God into which we are invited. God deeply desires that we live in friendship with Him. When we drift away from this Divine Friendship, our hearts get homesick. Thankfully, the Serenity Prayer can show us how to live each day with God as our ever-present faithful Friend.

Ask anyone who has prayed and lived this prayer for a significant period of time. They will tell you how it has guided them to abide in God in a very practical and down-to-earth way. Each sentence of this prayer has the potential to draw us towards our true home. I hope you will discover this for yourself as we seek serenity together during this reading plan.

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.

Living one day at a time,

enjoying one moment at a time,

accepting hardships as the pathway to peace,

taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it,

trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His will—

that I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him forever.

Seeking Serenity

Remind yourself that God wants to live in friendship with you. Allow the Serenity Prayer to show you what it may mean to live as God’s friend where you are.