The Surrender NOVENA – A Powerful Weight Loss Prayer

He wants us to give him everything. And you’ve likely already surrendered your marriage. You’re parenting your profession you’re sick parents. Maybe a wayward adult child You’ve surrendered so much of your life but until you surrender your food and weight struggles the Lord can not come in and help you and That’s why it feels like you might be doing it on your own if you feel like you’re not getting help from the Lord It’s because you’re still holding on to it, and you haven’t surrendered it And so today, let’s talk about a simple way that you can start to surrender your food and weight struggles and so that the Lord can give you his strength.

Before we do that, I want to tell you how I came about this novena. A client of mine had mentioned it earlier this spring and gave it to me as a gift, a little prayer card as a gift with a chaplet. Which is 10 beads put together. It was beautiful. And I thought, oh, this is so cool. And so I started the novena.

And the first thing that really struck me was its simplicity. I enjoyed it so much that I have now done it nearly every day since then. I just keep going day 1 through 9. If you don’t know what a novena is, it is 9 days of prayers. This novena is so darn simple.

So I continued it not only because I liked the words and they were great reminders to turn the things over to the Lord and I enjoyed its simplicity but what I started to notice is that I started to ask myself questions like, Denise, what are you holding on to tightly?

What if you’d loosen your grip over this? What could be possible if you let the Lord lead you? What if you start blindly following His prompts? And what I found in the last few months of doing this is that my relationship with the Lord has become even more intimate. And the peace in my life has skyrocketed.

I want that for you too. It’s not only helped me let go of things and worry, but it’s a daily reminder to give it to him.

I just encourage you that as you hear this novena, I’m not going to go through it word by word, but I do want to give share some highlights with you and some ways that I’ve interpreted it.

And I want you to just think to yourself, what is causing me unrest right now? Agitation, distress, what’s stealing my peace? What am I worrying about? And I bring this to you now because Advent starts next week. If you’re listening to this, As I record it, which is November of 2023, Advent begins next week.

And as we prepare for the Lord’s coming, He wants us to create more space in our lives for Him, what if we created more space in our hearts and our minds? By not worrying so much. By giving Him our troubles. You guys, you know how light that feels. Doesn’t that feel fantastic? The Lord is asking us during Advent to prepare our hearts and minds, create more space for him, allow for more lightness.

And I can’t think of a better way to do that than to give him our troubles, to give him our worries, to stop hanging on. To the things that we aren’t even meant to hang on to. They’re not even meant for us to solve. That’s why they feel so burdensome. That’s why they feel so heavy. We’re trying to do things on our own.

We’re trying to have this divine strength on our own. IN day one of the Surrender Novena, the Lord asks right away. He’s all Hey, why do you confuse yourself by worrying? Here’s what I love about that. Number one, he’s saying you’re doing this to yourself. And number two, did you guys even realize that the effect of worry was confusion? He says, why do you confuse yourselves by worrying?

Huh? So worry is leading me to feel more confused. And you guys know that the Lord only gives us clarity. So when we’re feeling clear and peaceful, that’s his voice. If we’re feeling confused and worry, we’re not connected to him. Those aren’t his thoughts. He goes on to say, Leave the care of your affairs to me and everything will be peaceful.

I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to me, this is my favorite part everybody, produces the effect that you desire. I love that. I love the Lord being like, listen, you surrender to me, I give you what you want. You surrender to me, I’ll give you what you want. And although in a roundabout way it seems like surrendering to him with the anticipation of getting what you want isn’t really surrendering to him, but he knows what you really want.

You really just want to feel peace with whatever life is throwing at you. You really just want to feel peace with the way your body looks. You really want to feel peace and motivated to take care of your body. You really just want to feel peace about learning how to get through the ups and downs of life without turning to food.

You really just want to have trust with yourself. You really just want to accept your body as it’s changing and healing. That’s what you really want? So he says, surrender it to me. And I’m going to give you what you really want. He says, I resolve all difficult situations.

That’s day one of the novena. See how simple that is? Now each day you will say this other statement. It’s the same dang statement every day, 10 times. Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything. Oh Jesus, I surrender my weight to you, take care of everything. Oh Jesus, I surrender my opinions about my body to you, take care of everything.

Oh Jesus, I surrender my fear of not being able to follow through to you, take care of everything. Oh Jesus. I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything. I surrender my spouse, my teenagers, me not getting enough sleep, whatever it is. He’s asking for you to surrender it to him. Now on the second day…

, He reminds you exactly what surrender is. He said, Surrender to me does not mean to fret, to be upset, or to lose hope. So if you guys find that you’re still worrying.

About something that means you haven’t surrendered it to him. He said it doesn’t mean offering me a worried prayer Asking me to follow you and change your worried prayer. Essentially. He’s all hey You can’t give me your worries and pretend you’re praying to me That’s not surrender That’s not surrender

Asking me to do things your way is not surrender. He goes on to say it’s against the surrender. Deeply against it. Whoa, Jesus. Getting heavy there. To worry. To be nervous. Oh my gosh. And listen to this. He says you’re not going to surrender if you are worried or nervous or if you like to think about the consequences of anything.

Huh, what do you mean the consequences of anything? So essentially what he’s saying, in my opinion, with regard to our food, is we’re just going to do what we know the Lord wants us to do. We’re going to eat food we enjoy, we’re going to work on stopping eating when we’re full, we’re going to follow our safe eating plan, and we’re not going to worry about what the scale says.

We’re not going to mirror check all day long. We’re just going to enjoy the peace of surrendering to the Lord. Now trust me, this is a hard thing to do and I think that might be why the Lord’s you should really keep doing this every day. Because it just gets easier. I’m telling you, this is a very powerful novena.

Keep doing it. See how simple this is? Day three. He says, how many things I do when the soul is in so much spiritual and material need. When they look at me and say, you take care of it and then close their eyes and rest. He even explains the Our Father. He’s so good. He said, pray they taught you the Our Father. Hallowed be thy name. He’s that means glorified in my need. The kingdom come. That is. Let all that is in us and in this world be in accord with your kingdom.

wHen we say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. We essentially are saying, Help me be in accord with your kingdom essentially we’re like, Lord, there are no accidents in your world, and I accept them.

Day four, he says, you see evil growing instead of weakening. Don’t worry. Close your eyes and say to me, thy will be done.

You take care of it. He goes on to say I will take care of it and I will intervene as a doctor does and accomplish miracles where they’re needed. He said, do you see that sick person getting worse? Don’t be upset. Close your eyes and say you take care of it. He says, I say to you that I will take care of it and that there’s no medicine more powerful than my loving intervention.

By my love I promise this to you. He’s saying y’all think things are getting bad. Your human perception is that things are getting worse. He’s that’s fine. But give it to me and know that in your human thoughts, you may only see that human side. You may only see evil growing. You may only perceive that things are getting worse.

I love that he’s just giving us permission to have those eyes. That might be your perception, he says, and that’s cool, but still give it to me, surrender it to me. Do you see how he’s not saying it’s okay to worry about it? He’s not saying fret, be upset, spin out and worry. He’s just saying you might perceive it as not getting better, but we can still say, Lord, it’s in your hands.

This is one of my favorites. The Lord says, And when I must lead you on a different path from the one I will prepare you. You guys, how many times has the Lord done something in your life that you’re like I didn’t see that coming. And it’s unsettling. It’s a shock. You feel blindsided. But if you pause and look back, you can see Where he had been preparing you for it, and you didn’t even know it.

So that when he leads you on that path, different from the one you can see how he has prepared you. He says, what troubles you and hurts you immensely are your reason, your thoughts and your worry, and your desire To make things your way. That’s what’s bothering you is you think it should go a certain way.

He doesn’t say it as Bluntly as that in this novena, but essentially he says that’s the reason why you’re all tied up You think that eating 15 cookies Should be okay, and it’s gonna get you where you want You’re holding on to those 15 cookies You’re holding on to a food that the Lord’s saying it’s causing you chaos.

You’re holding on to believing that you just can’t get through it without stopping at a drive thru.

I’m not saying any of those things are wrong, but what I am saying is that when you say, Lord, oh Jesus, I surrender. Me going through the drive thru every day on my way home from my kid’s school to you. Take care of everything. Does that mean you’re you’ve promised to stop going through the drive thru?

No! It just means you recognize it’s stealing your peace, and you might be willing to loosen your grip on it. All that means is that you might be willing to recognize That you can’t stop that on your own. That it’s not leading you to where you want to go. And that, if you’re going to stop going through the drive thru, you’re going to need the Lord’s strength.

Day six. You are sleepless, he says. You want to judge everything. Direct everything and see to everything. Oh my goodness. I love that. I love that he says you want to judge everything because I judge everything. I mean I used to be, and I still can be, Judgy McJugster from Judgeopolis where I’m judging the way he’s acting, she’s acting, the way the world is, the way things should be.

And one of the things that causes me the most turmoil is judging myself, judging the way my body looks, even doing. This podcast, it was so funny. I had so much mind drama about Denise, who are you to talk about a novena? I’m like judging myself talking about a novena about surrendering.

So I was like, oh wait, that’s silly, isn’t it, Denise? Maybe we should just let the Lord do this and you just surrender whatever this podcast episode becomes. I’m like, oh my gosh, I just love that. I think that’s why novena, because it makes me laugh. It just is such a great mirror to me, where he’s pinpointing exactly where my piece is being stolen.

He goes, you want to judge everything, direct everything. Yeah, because I know best. Ha ha ha. I totally don’t know best. He said, and see to everything. And you surrender to human strength. Which means I’m trying to do everything on my own. And then he goes, or worse, to men themselves trusting in their intervention.

Is what hinders my words and my views. So if you want to know what’s blocking the Lord, he’s telling you right here. He’s this is why you can’t hear me. Because you want to judge everything. You want to direct everything. You want to see to everything. And you’re thinking that you have to do this all on your own or you’re just doing what other human beings say you should do or what you think you quote should be doing.

And the only reason why you think you quote should be doing some is because you’ve learned it while you’ve lived on this earth in this society. So if you feel like the Lord is not talking to you, he’s telling you exactly here why you can’t hear him.

Because he’s always talking to us, just sometimes we’re a little louder than him.

He says, oh how much I wish for you to surrender to help you, and how I suffer when I see you so agitated. You’ve got to listen to this part. The word agitated. ANytime you’re feeling agitated, unsettled, off, not peaceful, but just agitated or unsettled or restless.

He says, how I suffer when I see you so agitated. He said, Satan tries to do exactly this, to agitate you and to remove you from my protection. And to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. Let me break that down a little bit. Essentially, here’s what Satan tries to do.

He tries to agitate you which essentially means when you’re not feeling at peace, you’re out of the Lord’s protection. . The Lord doesn’t want you to be agitated.

You’re just distracted. It’s so easy in this world to be distracted from what the Lord wants.

And to throw you into the jaws of human initiative. I have a little note in my prayer card here. And I know that I’m being thrown into the jaws of human initiative when I have this thought. It’s all up to me. I’m the one who has to do it. If I don’t do it, nobody else will. Nobody else can do it as good as me.

It’s funny when I say it out loud now, but I often think it. Just so you know, I know that causes me agitation. So the Lord goes on to say, so trust only in me, rest in me, surrender to me in everything.

Ah, this is just a simple, simple, simple novena. Day seven, he says one of my favorite words, he said, I perform miracles. You guys, did you know that you’re a miracle? Did you know that every day that you wake up, he’s opening your eyes because he’s got something for you? He’s got something miraculous for you in that day that if you didn’t live that day, he couldn’t give to you?

Ah, I just love this. He goes, I perform miracles in proportion. Ooh, I love that. Tell me how I get more. In proportion to your full surrender to me.. You’ve already said that Lord, but he goes on, it gets better. And to your not thinking of your selves. What? Denise, you talk about self care all the time.

How can I not think of myself? Things like this. Hmm.

Worry. I think one of the easiest ways to think of ourselves is to not take care of our needs. So for example, the other day, I picked up my son from basketball practice at 8pm and I was so expecting my husband to go. So I was grumbling the whole time I’ve got to go pick up my son.

I have to go pick up my son. Nobody cares that I don’t get my time for me. I don’t get blah, blah, blah. So essentially I was spinning out all in this toddler moment of I don’t get time for me. Not in that moment, but later on I was able to look at, Denise, the only reason why you felt like you didn’t get time for you is because you’ve been spending most of your free time working.

Or with other people, allowing yourself to be overextended. And I was like, oh, that’s right. Trust me, y’all. I love the work I do with Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit. I love working with the women in our Celebrate Not Sabotage Challenge. I love creating these podcasts. I love doing my articles.

I love all of that and it also feels creative. It also feels connected to the Lord. But guess what? There’s a lot more to Denise than that. So my point is, is that I was thinking all about Denise, because I wasn’t taking care of myself. And you’ll start to notice when you think, nobody cares about me.

Are you caring about you? Are you doing special things for you? Are you making sure that that shirt that you have on is one that you like or did you just put it on? And it doesn’t really fit right today. There’s nothing wrong with your body. Either A, it’s just a shirt that’s not meant for you, or just not meant for you today.

Do you see how we can even dress so we’re thinking about ourselves all day? Ooh, another one. Overeating. When I overeat, guess who I’m thinking about? I’m thinking about myself. I’m thinking about how full I feel. I’m thinking about, I wish I wouldn’t have done that.

Anytime we are in regret or remorse for a situation, we’re typically thinking about ourselves. See how that’s distracting us from what the Lord wants. , and so when it says not thinking of yourself, the Lord will reveal to you more and more what he means by that. It certainly doesn’t mean not taking care of your needs. It certainly doesn’t mean neglecting yourself.

He’ll reveal to you what that means. And you can even ask him, Lord, what do you mean? Where am I thinking of myself too much today? He said, I so treasure troves of graces when you’re in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker has ever performed miracles, not even among the saints..

He said, don’t think about it anymore because your mind is acute. . And for you, it’s very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. He’s just saying, you’ve got a human brain who sees human things. It’s hard for you to see on a divine level what’s actually cooking.

So just recognize that we’re so limited in our view when we think we know better. He said, do this for all of your needs, all of them friends. That is why this is a powerful novena, not only for weight loss, but for anything else in your life. He said, you you will see great continual silent miracles.

You know what’s so cool about a silent miracle is it’s a secret between you and the Lord. He’s going to show it to you. Nobody else is going to see it but you. He’s going to start opening your eyes. You guys are going to start this very intimate, personal relationship where he’s letting you in on the secrets of the things he’s doing.

That’s a silent miracle. So cool. So cool. Day eight, close your eyes and let yourself be carried away on the flowing current of my graces. I like to think of close your eyes and release your grip.. He said, close your eyes and do not think of the present. Hmm. That’s interesting. Turn your thoughts away from the future as you would from temptation.

Isn’t that fascinating? That thinking of the future is actually not trusting the Lord? What I think of that and when I talk to the women in the Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit program, it’s like this. Keep your eyes focused on today, on the work that you’re doing today. Stay focused here in this moment because God lives in the moment.

If you’re worrying that you’re not doing enough, you don’t know if this is going to work, you’re wondering what’s step five when you’re really only step one, or maybe you’re looking at step 15 when you’re on step five. If you look to the future, you’re distracted. You’ve removed yourself from the Lord’s protection because his protection is only possible in this moment.

He can only give you his strength in this moment. Stay focused on this moment. The work that you are doing now. So no matter what your weight loss program you’re doing or not doing, maybe you’re doing nothing other than listening to this podcast, he’s just saying, stay here with me. Stay focused on here.

Turn your thoughts away from the future as you would from temptation. A couple months ago a friend of mine came to me and said, Hey, do you want to start this Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit program? We’d already been doing similar work like this together but this was even more of a big step, a big leap.

And it just happened to be day eight when I made the decision. Yes. So she presented the opportunity to me and then the Lord said to me, turn your thoughts away from the future just as you would from temptation. And although there’s due diligence, I knew a hundred percent in my bones. The Lord wanted me to say yes.

And actually I knew he wanted me to say yes because that there’s a song, it’s a country song that says, I’m already there. I’m already there. Take a look around. I’m the sun sunlight in your hair. I think something, something, something. I’m the gentle breeze. But essentially the Lord saying I’m already in the future.

You don’t have to worry about it. And I thought, wow, he’s got this all figured out already. And so if I just sit in this moment and surrender to what I know he wants,

he’s already there. He’s already got it figured out. And it was so easy to say yes. He goes on to say, rest in me, believe in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that if you say you take care of it, I will take care of it. He says, I’ll console you. So he’ll tell you what he needs you to know.

I’ll liberate you. Wow, I love that idea of freedom. Doesn’t freedom just feel so good? I’m going to liberate you from your worries. And finally, he says, and I’m going to guide you. So as you go through your day, I’ll keep telling you what I want from you.

And then in day nine.. He tells exactly what he wants us to pray for. Pray always in readiness to surrender. So essentially he’s just pray to me that you can surrender and you’ll receive from it great peace and great rewards. He says, even when I ask you to do hard things, you’re still going to be surrendering and feeling that peace.

He said, it seems impossible to you, doesn’t it? But close your eyes and say with all your soul, Jesus, you take care of it. Don’t be afraid. I’ll take care of things and you will bless my name by humbling yourself. Humbling ourselves because he’s going to do these things for us and we’re going to be able to say, yep, there’s the Lord.

You can see him right there. He said a thousand prayers cannot equal one single act of surrender. Remember this well. There is no novena more effective than this. He says it right there. That’s the last sentence in this novena. He says it. This novena was inspired and given to Father Don DeLindo, who was friends with Padre Pio.

This is powerful. And so as we enter into Advent, or whenever you’re listening to this, grab a free PDF, start saying it for whatever troubles you. And if you could leave a comment on how this has changed your life, I would absolutely love to hear it.

And if you’d like a simple method to enjoy the heck out of the holidays without the sabotage, come to my free workshop this Friday at 11 a. m. central. Go to weightlosswithaholyspirit. com to get your slot. And I will even be teaching you how you can lose 10 pounds even over the holidays.

I also want you

own surrender Novenas recorded for you that you can listen to every day at the YouTube channel at Catholic Weight Loss.

Friends, we’re here for you. And when we live life according to the Lord, things feel simple and peaceful. And that’s what we want for you at Weight Loss of the Holy Spirit. So I hope you’ve been inspired. I hope the Lord has talked to your heart. Have a blessed day.