Food Addiction: many roots, one healer

Food addiction as a Christian is a tricky topic, and an incredibly hard road to walk. See, we, like apostle Paul, know the good we should do, and often, we don’t do it. We know that our bodies are the very temple of the one true God. The Bible is full of stories about the way the Lord responds to people who defile is temple…it should install more healthy fear of God in us. But does it?

I assume, that you, like me, can quote countless verses that apply here:

I can do all things through Christ….

I buffet my body…

I die daily…

No longer I who live but Christ within….

To live is Christ and to die is gain….

Count it all joy…

I could go on…

So many weapons in the Word to help us stand strong and overcome.

Countless ways to resist the devil and watch him flee.

But here we are, going around and around the same circle of addiction.

For many of us that may look something like this:

Binge junk food, feel badly, eat the feelings and shame, try again to get it just right, hit a bump, eat the feelings….rinse and repeat.

It gets exhausting and for me personally, it led to so much shame. So many lies flood my head when I get trapped in that cycle and addiction seems to be winning. In those moments, I am learning to look up. If I look up I see Jesus, I see my source, my strength, my strong tower. I am reminded that I am not alone in this battle and that His love and grace are NOT earned. Reminded that what I did with food does NOT define me. That all my good choices and forward action steps toward victory all count.

It’s not about perfection, it’s about persistence, perseverance, holding on to hope we can so easily lose sight on in the battle. It’s about choosing discipline and commitment over momentary motivation.

Being transparent, this is an ongoing lesson for me, Even years in to this, down over 130lbs, with more knowledge and information than you would believe….I’m still working on this.

Breaking free of the lie of shame and need for perfection may be something I fight, to some degree, for the rest of my life on earth. BUT I fight now as somebody who knows in her core that victory is within reach. That Jesus’ sacrifice conquered sin and the grave and set me free. I know a hope that anchors me when the waves of defeat come crashing against my boat of effort.

Sure, I have set backs and derailments, but more and more as I seek to see this weight loss and addiction journey through the eyes of God’s truth and promises, the more I can press on. These days I can usually regroup and get back on track pretty quickly compared to the past when I’d give up for years even. Seeing this hard work as work done as unto the Lord, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Seeing this hard work as an opportunity to glorify God with the temple He’s entrusted me with. It all helps me choose discipline and perseverance when my motivation lacks and my flesh feels weak.

As far as the why, why would I or any of us Jesus loving believers battle bondage like this? Well, there are so many reasons, some natural, some mental, some spiritual…it is my goal to begin to break those down in future messages to help expose the hidden strongholds and roots to this addiction. In doing so, in shedding light on those once secret sources of defeat, I am believing the Lord will begin to strengthen each of us to overcome and shake off the shame. To see that this battle isn’t just a battle of our own resolve or strength but also one with some very real enemies (not just satan), like toxic industrialized food, gut damaging medications, life altering trauma… we are not failures, we are warriors who just need to learn what we are up against and sharpen our swords.

We will overcome!