TREATING EATING DISORDERSpart IIIEducation. Knowledge is essential to recovery. Many times, recovering anorexics, bulimics, and compulsive eaters need to broaden their focus of learning. They need to not merely hone in on how to be thin, but on how to be healthy and to live right. The disordered person should stop reading on fad diets and start researching natural foods and cooking without fat or refined sugars and flours. She should find out what pleases the Lord, because it can be counted on that whatever is pleasing to God is going to also be best for her. Warped understanding regarding how much exercise is enough exercise needs to be challenged or supported with facts, not just feelings. Reading about the eating disorder should be replaced with reading about the Solution. It’s not as important to know our eating disorder as it is to know our God. People recovering from eating disorders need to educate themselves about Him to find out who He is, what He is like, what He can do for them, and what He wants from us. Especially they need to learn about how much He loves them and wants to heal them. Develop a relationship with God. There is nothing more important to recovery than this. There is no adequate replacement for time spent in church under the teaching of a good shepherd nor for reading the Bible, praying, and praising and worshipping the Lord. A person wishing to put an eating disorder behind him would do well to meet Jesus Christ the Savior and make Him Lord of his life, if he has not already done so. Anyone who sincerely seeks God through faith in Jesus Christ and spends time in His presence getting to know Him will see results. The eating disorder cannot stay. Christians who are serious about God are being conformed a day at a time into the likeness of Jesus, and Jesus is the exact representation of God’s very being. Jesus doesn’t have an eating disorder, so neither will His followers! If someone specifically casts the care of their eating disorder onto Him, all the more quickly will those crazy thought and behavior patterns be annihilated and lopped off. This is good news. This is the hope and the promise found in Jesus Christ! A good church inspires the development of a personal relationship with God that extends beyond the service and the four walls of the sanctuary. A person who is plugged into a great church will grow spiritually on the feasting of the Word and will experience increasing levels of peace and joy and all the fruit of the Spirit. If this is not the case, a person should consider both the church and his own self to determine where the adjustment is needed. I know many of you are thinking, "But I've been a Christian a long time. I pray, I go to church, I have a relationship with God." And you are not understanding why you are not healed. One possibility has to do with Lordship. Many Christians try to "squeeze" God into their lives, not out of knowledge or conviction, but rather out of a sense of guilt and "shoulds." They never really get past the "chore" feeling of serving and worshipping God. Some other Christians pursue God, but only to the extent that they want to "fit" God into their own desires and plans, rather than fit their lives into HIS desires and plans. The problem is that neither type of Christian has given Jesus FIRST PLACE in their lives. They have attended church for years and years, maybe even since they were born. They pray--maybe even often, they read the Bible, or at least hear the Word preached in church. But they have not made Jesus their MASTER. So what does it mean to have Jesus as your "master?" We talk about God as being our "Lord", our "Master", or even our "King." What are Christians talking about when they use those terms? I think we often use those terms loosely, out of habit. It is what some refer to as "Christianese." A sort of language used by the majority of Christians that Christians understand. But just as with any language, the meaning of words can get muddied or even lost, to where we say things without really thinking about it and the statements become a mockery because they are a lie. To grant Jesus--who IS God--His rightful place as Lord, Master, and King of your life means to give Him FIRST PLACE. Not second place, nor third place. Not middle place. Not even tied for first place. It is definitely not last place. It isn't something based on feelings, which change from day to day. It isn't based on what your friend or neighbor is doing. To crown Jesus KING of your life requires a conscious decision and commitment based upon knowledge and sound spiritual judgment. A "lord" is a ruler. One who is "master" is the head and also the "expert." A "king" is the royal supreme chief of his people. Does God fill this role in your life? When Jesus is Lord, He is the One you run to first with every question, because you know He has the answers. You value His counsel above anyone else's when facing a major decision in life, knowing that He grants wisdom abundantly to any child of His who asks and believes. When Jesus is Lord, you pray for His help whenever your weaknesses threaten to overtake you. You read His Word as if your life depended on it, because you know in fact it does, and the Bible is God's "handbook" for life. When Jesus is Lord, you make every effort to obey Him without reservation. If you accomplish nothing else in the day, you make sure that you spend time with God because it is your highest need in life. If your schedule becomes so crammed that you seem to never have time to fellowship with God the way you want to, you look for ways to streamline and don't give up until your Lord is back in first place. Take an honest assessment of your relationship with God now. Is He in first place? It's okay to cry. I know I am always needing to work on this issue....perhaps you do too! If you aren't mindful, it is easy to let your precious fellowship with Jesus slip. And then you start running your life more or less by yourself again, and that's when trouble starts. Let go of the past. Many people who practice eating disorders have experienced something dreadful in their past, such as sexual, physical, and/or verbal abuse, loss of a family member, chronic illness, or some other painful event or living condition. Unforgiveness and bitterness are two cousins that prevent people from healing and moving on with their lives. It is impossible for anyone to reach his full potential spiritually with unforgiveness and bitterness lodged in his heart—in fact, he will remain grossly stunted. Forgiveness not only releases the other person, but it releases the forgiver as well, for unforgiveness is bondage and it perpetuates pain even though the original cause is long removed or stopped. Bitterness is nothing more than wasted energy, since the past cannot be changed. Bitter and unforgiving people are administrators of their own torment. Forgiveness is not just a feeling—it is first a decision, a decision to be obedient to God’s Word. To forgive, a person often must first choose to forgive, in spite of his feelings. Later on, as he continues to practice forgiveness through prayerful and conscientious ordering of his thoughtlife and actions, the feeling of forgiveness will come and the full release and freedom will be realized. Needless to say, this is much easier said than done, and many, many people find that it cannot be done apart from the Spirit of God working in them. Vision and expectation. So often I have heard the lamentations, "I can't imagine my life without the eating disorder," or "I've always been this way," or "I'll probably always struggle with food." I used to think these same thoughts. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) Other versions of the Bible say "cast off restraint" in place of "perish." In other words, people who have a lack of vison also fail to develop the tenacity and self-discipline necessary to make the dream happen, and the dream dies. To fully recover from the tyranny of an eating disorder, a person must first believe it is possible. The next step is to believe it will happen and that it is already happening. God has been working "behind the scenes" since the day you first cried out to him in your anguish (Ps. 34:17). In reality, when you accepted Christ as Lord, your "old man" was crucified with Him, and because of that fact, you were rendered dead to sin. Therefore, you have the ability to walk in this truth. But it must be clearly seen in your mind's eye and it must be believed, not on the basis that you already see it but because God said it. Those without faith in God are often at a loss in this respect, and even those who do have a relationship with God may discover that their actual trust in Him is weak. It is imperative that the disordered person be able to see herself recovered and to have an expectation of progress. The vision, based upon the promise and sureness of God's Word, must become more real than what is seen, heard, and felt. Persistence. The person who really wants out of the hell of eating disorders must develop an attitude of persistence. Many of us, by the time we get really serious about seeking God as our solution, already have persisted. We’ve spent years trying to stop doing what we’re doing. I know I was beat up and tired when I found my way to the altar. I didn’t want to have to do anything, I wanted God to do it all. But it didn’t go that way, so thank God, I persisted some more. Galatians 6:9 says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." My pastor told me that the literal meaning of the word "weary" is give in to wicked and evil impulses. So let us not give into those impulses to binge, starve, over-exercise, or whatever, but let us purpose in our hearts to do what is right and good, for in time we will reap a harvest, which I believe is freedom from slavery to the sin, and beyond that to become effective servants and to fulfill God's call on our lives. My Story
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