by Kate Johns

Created on: October 07, 2008   Last Updated: October 14, 2008

The power of prayer has been shown to be a positive influence in almost every area of a person's life. But how can prayer help a person lose weight? People who are very overweight and have underlying medical conditions pray and through divine intervention and through medical science they lose the weight and become healthier people. But for regular people who just want to lose a few extra pounds, can praying help you lose weight?

Prayer has a wonderful influence in a person's life. When a person prays, God will most certainly answer a person's prayers, but just trying to lose ten pounds for example is not a catastrophic condition that needs God's intervention. But what prayer does do for a person is helps that person calm down, and forces them to think logically. Praying is very much like reciting a yoga chant, where you repeat the same word over and over. This forces your mind and your body to relax and then while you are reciting that one word, your mind starts thinking of other things. This actually helps a person find a solution to their problem.

Your body becomes relaxed, and you think of solutions to the problem. Certainly God can help you lose weight by saying a few Hail Mary's, but what is happening is that you are allowing your mind and body to relax, and then your body doesn't want to eat as much food. When a person is bored, overtired, and overstimulated by everyday life, where you are running from one thing to another, you tend to eat too much food of the wrong foods. By taking the time out to pray, you are taking time out for yourself.

Having faith in yourself and in life, helps you get through everyday and the worst of times. Everyone needs something to believe in that assists them with life. It is a matter of having confidence to believe in yourself and having a belief in a higher power that helps you to lose the weight. Many people turn to Hollywood diets, diet pills, and costly weight management programs, but really all you have to do is believe that you can lose the weight. And it certainly will not hurt to have God on your side!

God will help people who believe in him and his divine intervention, but what it really comes down to is a person helping herself. God is giving you the guidance to help yourself, but you have to carry through and work towards your goals. We've all heard of cases where people don't believe in modern medicine and deny themselves and their children the rights to allow medicine into their bodies to help themselves. They believe that through the power of prayer that a sick person will get better.

God doesn't work that way. He does perform miracles, but God needs you to work to attain your goals. God helps people who help themselves. And while praying certainly will help a person lose weight, you have to make the ultimate sacrifice. You need to cut back on calories and fat and you need to excericse. And a little help from God, certainly will give you that necessary boost!

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