3 Recovery Prayers for Serenity, Healing, and Peace

Silhouette of a person praying to a cross at twilight

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The Serenity Prayer is one of the most well-known and dearly loved prayers. While remarkably simple, it has impacted countless lives, supplying them with God's strength and courage in their battle to overcome life-controlling addictions.

This prayer has also been called the 12-Step Prayer, the Alcoholics Anonymous Prayer, or the Recovery Prayer.

Serenity Prayer

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 hardships as the 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.

-- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

Prayer for Recovery and Healing

Dear Lord of Mercy and Father of Comfort,

You are the One I turn to for help in moments of weakness and times of need. I ask you to be with me in this illness and affliction.

Psalm 107:20 says that you send out your Word and heal your people. So then, please send your healing Word to me now. In the name of Jesus, drive out all sickness and affliction from his body.

Dear Lord, I ask you to turn this weakness into strength, this suffering into compassion, sorrow into joy, and pain into comfort for others. May I, your servant, trust in your goodness and hope in your faithfulness, even in the middle of this struggle. Fill me with patience and joy in your presence as I breathe in your healing life.

Please restore me to wholeness. Remove all fear and doubt from my heart by the power of your Holy Spirit, and may you, Lord, be glorified in my life.

As you heal and renew me, Lord, may I bless and praise you.

All of this, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Prayer for Peace

This well-known prayer for peace is a classic Christian prayer by St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226).

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.
--St. Francis of Assisi

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Fairchild, Mary. "3 Recovery Prayers for Serenity, Healing, and Peace." Learn Religions, Apr. 5, 2023, learnreligions.com/serenity-and-recovery-prayers-700496. Fairchild, Mary. (2023, April 5). 3 Recovery Prayers for Serenity, Healing, and Peace. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/serenity-and-recovery-prayers-700496 Fairchild, Mary. "3 Recovery Prayers for Serenity, Healing, and Peace." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/serenity-and-recovery-prayers-700496 (accessed March 28, 2024).