Analysis of the So-Called Serenity Prayer, Especially in So-Called Christian Counseling
Only with justification by Jesus Christ by rebirth through confession of Master Jesus and belief of the four tenets of the gospel (do Romans 10:9, 10, 13 due to believing 1 Corinthians 15:3-8) is any prayer heard by God and is not a blasphemous look-alike.
Any given individual in the world functions or does not function well enough to be able to use the simple rule-of-thumb about not trying to exert willpower over things outside their control. Teaching awareness of a person's will is a sort of mechanical way to pick apart one of the most externally visible symptoms of bitterness, which is a prime component in addictions, tangled up with a false view of what others owe one, which is pride, and tangled up with a false hurt, which is subtlety, manipulation and meanness. These are the things that afflict the sin-corrupted human. Only Master Jesus Christ did not suffer it.
Psychology allows us to change things internal to ourselves to a point, but Christ is necessary to really change us from the inside. Internal change through psychology - through our own willpower and the other parts of our souls - is as powerful and useful as it has always been. That is, it is limited by the corruption of the sin in our bodies, including our nervous systems. Only by becoming a new creation in Christ through rebirth by the Holy Spirit in our confession of Master Jesus due to our belief of the four tenets of the gospel do we, as new creatures, have the ability to overpower our sin-corrupted bodies and change ourselves in the way psychology supposes. Unsaved individuals can often change parts of themselves to a degree that it acceptable to the sin-corrupted society's functional tests of ability, but this falls short of general change, and it's why the second part of the so-called Serenity Prayer doesn't work for the unjustified human, but it only works for the Christian. The Bible and the Holy Spirit does have guidelines that are useful in changing the micro and the macro, internal and external, for the Christian, but when those who are not justified in God's sight by being reborn through the baptism of the Holy Spirit by confessing Master Jesus and believing the four tenets of the gospel, those people eventually run into some lie in their system, no matter how hard they try to replicate the good things of Christ in themselves, because they are simply unable to be changed at the fundamental level by their own means. The unjustified person is using their own wisdom and will even when they try to replicate Biblical principles within themselves or exert those principles onto others.
The wisdom to know the difference between things I can and cannot change is like any wisdom - it comes from the fear of YHWH! Only God can make us understand on a point by point basis what is and is not worth any individual's attempt to change it, and the unjustified, like in all areas of existence, only have a version of this wisdom that does not penetrate to the essence, no matter how hard they try or how deeply they feel or think or craftily undertake to perform with all their flexibility and might.
The unsaved can be free from addictions in the same way that they can learn to drive a car. It's at the soul level. Some people cannot drive cars, due to their handicaps, and, likewise, not every person will find freedom from addiction - it's not guaranteed; it's a soulish undertaking. Psychological counseling uses the twelve steps (derived from parts of the Bible), a sponsor (replicating Church authority) and service (mimicking the use of spiritual gifts within the Church). For people who are already religious, it also co-opts any desired "higher power" image (which goes along with the tool of so-called, mimicked prayer to that chosen non-god) as a buffer between trigger and drug - it's just another mechanic in this soulish, human-level endeavor. There is power in being known by Jesus and talking to Him, in accordance with the Scriptures, though!
Christ helps His own, so that the justified (in accordance with Scripture - actual Christians, as Christ knows who are His own) have greater tools - including prayer - to help with any soulish or spiritual or physical matter, according to God's will, which all matters are constrained by. Christian counseling as it generally is presented to the unjustified is uncovered as a false thing that subverts Christ's name while robbing some of His good things to use as mechanics to partially heal some parts of human souls. Real Christian counseling would be in line with all the commands and exhortations and teachings of Scripture, which the unjustified will not abide (which is probably the main reason these additional things are not present in such counseling environments, or in many secularized churches). To the Bible-enacting Christian, all the helpful things of counseling are included, with many other necessary and useful things, such as not being friends with the World and having God's joy deep inside via connection with Him, and includes true control and esteem that lacks any of the shame which comes from sin and distance from God in reality. The god of your inner consciousness, maintained by focus, which is so frequently meant in the modern time by the word "God" is an idol! Run to Master Jesus and be free from the sin that so easily besets you.
Living one day at a time is a mechanical way to not be frightened by your thoughts. It's a merely soulish action. It does bear some immediate, outward success, but it's useful because it limits the scope of the mind, which sin corrupts to fear, and so this mechanic artificially reduces the fear by reducing the thinking. Christ can free the mind to think about all sorts of things - tomorrow and next month included - because His healing is fundamental and works out to every part of the soul, unlike partially useful philosophies. God's Word has the answer for not setting yourself up for disappointment, though, which "live one day at a time" attempts to prevent, when His Scripture teaches His people not to plan things based on our own prideful wills, but we say "as the Lord wills". Now, I told you a good thing - don't fold it into any list of mechanics to be used by the unjustified ones - saying "as the Lord wills" is a lie for them, see? Jesus said it best, and it is a useful saying, which can be used by the justified and the unjustified, just like sunshine: "So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:34, NET). But if the unjustified uses it to some advantage, don't think this is the main purpose of knowledge, but be willing to exchange constant worry if it was required to gain the new birth into God (but it is not), knowing Christ, because He's better than mental health, and He - on His own time and in His own way - gives His own people the experience of joy and happiness in the moment as He wills, and His will is better than ours!
Satan's wisdom is to appear to be on God's side by managing observable behavior and seeming to be righteous. That's what we have been warned about concerning Antichrist - a man of sin who looks like Christ, but is all dead inside. Many godless techniques include godly action to prop them up, but they don't glorify Master Jesus Christ. Choose today whom you will serve, either the true or the false God, who is able to give all His own not only serenity ("utter calm and unruffled repose or quietude") but also life and action and big feeling with self-control! His things are good, and His own enjoy suffering the knowledge that we are truly lowly. Run to Master Jesus by His own way like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 about the tenets of belief listed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 and our right response to believing them as seen in Romans 10:9, 10, 13. Throw off your shackles by being born again as a new creation that has freedom from the bondage of sin, and then godly counsel will be great wisdom to that Christian!