"Serenity"

"What shall be given unto thee? Or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?" (Psalms 120:3)

  Obviously there is more to this than just asking for forgiveness; there are people that need to be offered the chance to forgive and that deserve a sincere apology for any wrong that has been done to them. If you have ever been involved with A.A. then you know what I am getting at and how they stress the importance of making amends. They refer to this process with a thing called, "The Serenity Prayer," which goes: "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." As many of us should know, this is not just the outlook of those that might be involved with addition recovery, this is pretty much the way things need to be viewed when it comes to life in general. There are certain things that we can never change, no matter how hard we might try, it just cannot be done. Does that mean that they will not change? No, not in the least! What it does mean, is that we cannot do anything; but maybe someone else can, and maybe, just maybe time itself will change things. The important thing to remember, is that we need the wisdom to know the difference between the two; and the things that are determined to be what we can change, we need the courage to face the challenge of doing whatever it is that we need to do. Don't you just love the way God works? He never leaves us alone in our sinful nature. If there is an issue that you are dealing with, you can bet for certain that you are not alone; we all face the same issues, some more than others, but in one way or another they all are associated with the original sin: Disobedience to the Word of God! Sure, you could make it about lust, or pride, or even power; but none of that would have even been considered if disobedience was not a choice; those things were the things that made disobedience worth the try. So, in the way that the Serenity Prayer works, what that looks like is very similar to that famous quote: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it!" You cannot change that! You also cannot change the desires of your foolish hearts, because they are always going to rise up, and they are always gong to be and issue. But God's word never changes, it is never altered by anything that we feel or think is owed to us, or even the things that we think we can get away with. These foolish things that we contend with must be overruled, and the thing that overrules them is the Word of God, period...

"Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, it he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." (Matthew 16:24-27)