BEYOND EMOTIONAL EATING - Spiritual Steps to Gain Victory Over FoodSample

DAY 2: SURRENDER

As a recovered bulimic, I remember how I could eat to the point of feeling like an overstuffed sausage almost ready to explode. A few hours after purging, I’d sometimes find myself binging once again. I never felt satisfied. I felt powerless, ashamed, and discouraged.

It wasn’t until I began to surrender to Jesus as my Lord that I began to get a glimpse of how the Holy Spirit could renovate my thinking and tear down my destructive habits. With a lot of apprehension, I cautiously invited him into the very private parts of my messy life. I kept reminding myself that he could see it all anyway. Why not talk to him directly? Sometimes, even with my head in the bowl of the toilet, as I purged my last bag of Oreo cookies – I called out to God for forgiveness and told him I wanted to give my body fully to him and find my satisfaction in him alone.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it.
The battles of our flesh are tough ones to overcome no matter how much we love God and have victory in other areas. Sometimes the enemy would torment me with my failures and tell me that God was sick and tired of hearing me say the same old thing. But I knew that was a lie.

Over a few months, I realized I’d gone from binging four or five times a day, to five times a week. Within a year I was only binging two or three times a month. I remember thinking: “Wow, I am getting better. Just because I mess up now and then, it doesn’t negate the fact that I rely on food to satisfy me less and less. And I’m running to God to satisfy me more and more.”

It is essential to believe that God loves you and is loving you throughout your journey no matter how many times you fail. He knows your weaknesses. He sees your struggles to change. When we call out and surrender to him, he orders our steps and delights when we are obedient. (Psalm 37:23) When we run away, he runs after us. When we fail, he forgives us. He is a good and loving Father.

Are you willing to invite God into your struggles today?
Don’t worry that you’ll mess up. You will! Don’t let the enemy tell you the lie that you will never find victory. Do acknowledge that you are certain to have tough days or weeks when you feel like you’re moving backward. Remind yourself each day that you are focusing on Progress over Perfection. Ask the Lord to give you the courage to invite him into your struggles, and his strength to face off the day-to-day temptations.

We cannot do what only God can do, and He will not do what we can.
~Oswald Chambers