OA Prayers

Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is a twelve-step program founded in 1960 for people with problems related to food including, but not limited to, compulsive overeaters, those with binge eating disorder, bulimics and anorexics. Please feel free to download a PDF version of the OA Prayers. You can also download a PDF version of the prayers for each step of the OA program.

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.

The OA Promise

I put my hand in yours, and together we can do what we could never do alone. No longer is there a sense of hopelessness, no longer must we each depend upon our own unsteady willpower. We are all together now, reaching out our hands for power and strength greater than ours, and as we join hands, we find love and understanding beyond our wildest dreams.

The Third-Step Prayer,  p.63, Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book)

“God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”

This is a prayer many of us say daily to remind ourselves of the decision we made in the third step to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our higher power, and to seek our higher power’s will for us today.

 The Seventh-Step Prayer, p. 76, Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book)

“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good & bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you & my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here to do Your bidding. Amen”

This is a prayer we say to our higher power to surrender the old thoughts and behaviors that cause us problems so they can be replaced with better reactions to life’s ups and downs — identifying these problem areas and turning them over are the essence of the sixth and seventh step . It reminds us that our goal is not to be superior to others but to be of service to others.

The Eleventh-Step Prayer, p. 99, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (Alcoholics Anonymous)

"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace!
That where there is hatred, I may bring love.
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony.
That where there is error, I may bring truth.
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith.
That where there is despair, I may bring hope.
That where there are shadows, I may bring light.
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted.
To understand, than to be understood.
To love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen."

“As beginners in meditation, we might now reread this prayer several times very slowly, savoring every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea.  It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says.  For in meditation, debate has no place.  We rest quietly with the thoughts of someone who knows, so that we may experience and learn.”

“As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us.  Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers.  Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.”

“…when such thoughts break in, we might recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tired to create reality out of bottles.”

“First of all, he wanted to become a “channel.”  Then he asked for grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, hope, light and joy to every human being he could.

Once more we read our prayer, and again try to see what it’s inner essence is…

“this much could be a fragment of what is called meditation, perhaps our very first attempt at a mood, a flier into the realm of spirit, if you like.  It ought to be followed by a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we able to move closer to the ideal we have been trying to glimpse."

We hope you will find the NA prayers on Recovery HQ useful to your recovery or spiritual practice.  Please feel free to contact us directly with any questions you may have.