The Serenity Prayer

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Transcript: 

Happy Friday, everyone. Today is August 8, 2025. I wanted to end this week with one of the most famous prayers in the English language. It’s what’s commonly referred to as The Serenity Prayer. 

Researching online, you’ll see different debates about its authorship and even different versions. Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, phrases it like this: 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

 The courage to change the things I can,

 And wisdom to know the difference. 

The most-agreed-upon author is theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. The prayer was written in 1932 as the ending of a much longer prayer. The original version goes like this:

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.

That prayer has encouraged countless people for decades. May it bless you today. Have a great weekend.

Thank you for listening to News on Knees, a community prayer podcast by Story King Media. 

If you want to join the movement, I’m calling all believers, anyone who wants to pray for the world, their country, their region, a specific societal issue. Using something as simple as the voice memo app on your phone, record a 1–2 minute prayer and email it to: 

[e-mail], 

that’s…

[e-mail]

Simply write the word ‘PRAYER’ in the subject line of the email. 

NOTE - Two Rules for Submitted Prayers:

1. Please Keep Obvious Political Bias Out
2. No Personal Requests. Prayers should be about societal issues that are either global, country, state, or region-specific.

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All instructions, links, and news sources will be in the show notes.

I leave you with:

Philippians 4:6-7 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Until next time…

Sources: 

1. https://www.nachi.org/serenity-prayer.htm 
2. https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/publications/share/ 
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer 
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr