I received a fantastic testimony this past week. I asked the author if I could share it on here because it boosted my faith and I hoped it would do the same for you.
Heleen,
I have written you in the past of my horrible struggles with my food addiction and would love to share with you my story of how I am 100% healed. No longer addicted to food. And it’s not just that I’ve stayed away from eating my trigger foods. I am a normal eater now. Through the power of prayer and God, I was healed six months ago. I’ve spoken about it in my OA meetings but because everyone is stuck on believing that food addiction is a disease they will have their entire life, they hardly heard a thing I said. I am now able to eat flour, sugar, fats, anything without feeling a need to binge or even give a second thought to food. It’s amazing! Truly a miracle. With God ALL things are possible.
-Natalie
WARNING: Please don’t get discouraged if you have only been finding freedom from food addiction by staying away from trigger foods, seeing a counselor, a doctor, or attending a group. God USES ALL OF THOSE things (and people) in the lives of those who love Him and seek Him first.
However, I’ve been challenged by Natalie’s letter to ask myself if I still believe that God can set me TOTALLY FREE – NO MORE STRUGGLES. I have accepted that I might have to keep an eye on my eating and pray for self-control for the rest of my life, but did I maybe in the process give up on the dream of running 100% free from this struggle?
How’s your faith level these days?
- Do you remember that the Bible says “without faith, it is impossible to please God”?
- Do you remember that we as children of God walk this journey on earth by faith and not by sight?
Please know that this is not meant as an accusation. I forget too, and yes, I still struggle, if not with food then with other stuff. We get so swept up in what we see, what demands our attention, and what’s going on around us that we lose sight of our faith and God.
Throughout my own rocky journey, two Bible passages keep stirring my heart. In fact, I always get a little teary-eyed when I read about the woman with the issue of blood, and the woman at the well. They were both instantaneously changed by an encounter with Jesus. Both of them were in bondage and suffered for a long time mind you. The one spent all of her money on doctors for YEARS; the other one lived in bondage for a long time (through five husbands).
My heart always aches when I read letters of women who are not so young anymore and feel that they have wasted so many years of their lives on this struggle. However, if I look at these two women in the Bible I want to encourage you today: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE!
So what happened on ‘THAT GLORIOUS DAY” that changed everything for these women?
After exhausting all of their other resources (doctors and men), they found unwavering faith in Jesus- FAITH THAT HE ALONE COULD HEAL THESE WOUNDED AREAS IN THEIR LIVES. That faith moved them to a place of action and freedom.
Note how both these women faced humiliation and had to let go of all denial and pride. The one crawled through the filth and we’re probably scoffed and trampled on, yet she believed if she could only touch the hem of His garment, she would be free. The other faced humiliation from other women and had to lay down her denial when she came face to face with Jesus.
However, both found true healing through the act of surrendering to the only true Healer and Saviour (Remember the Bible says in Isaiah 61 that He came to “set the captives free” and “bind up the brokenhearted” )
Now you may still have to “crawl through some crowds”, maybe by finding a counselor or program to help you deal with the pain behind your eating disorder.
You may still have to lay down some layers of pride and denial, but God has freedom in store for you.
Keep an eye out for YOUR “Glorious Day” when freedom will come to your house!
Your sister in Christ
Heleen
Note: I discuss the process of laying down denial and pride and surrendering your struggle to Jesus in my 12 Week Online Program. Please have a look at the Free Week 1 and see if this is a good choice for you. This program is suited for ladies who want to find out how to stop binge eating, stop overeating or stop bulimia for good.
NEW: Individual Counseling ONLINE or in BEAVERTON, OR Call Heleen at (503) 914-2749 Schedule online: www.LifeSolutions.io
Hello Heleen 🙂
I began this program with great expectation that it was exactly what I needed not only to disipline my eating but also to disipline my life so that I can be useful in God\’s hand. I have never been bulemic or anorexic nor do I particularly binge but maybe to eat the left over edges from my daughter\’s heart sandwich, or to mindlessly eat 5-6 oreo\’s on my way to bed which behaviors have gradually put 60 extra pounds on my 5\’4\" frame. I haven\’t really related to food being my lover because I don\’t think about eating except when I have to plan dinner for my family, or go grocery shopping, but I know that I need to deal with the issues that got me here and develop the fruit of self-control in my life. The precepts are truly what I need but I found that I was unable to continue regulary when so many other priorities crowded in….so I need this program!
This should be my 7th week in this program and it was extremely helpful but I did not get past beginning the 4th week from feeling so many demands on my time that it is difficult to get to the computer. When I have alone time I like to sit with my Bible first and as yet I have not been able to master the disipline of daily time in this program…..so……I need to start with week one again! I think this time that I will print out the material so I can read on the go also because I am determined to be an overcomer. I am very thankful to you Heleen, so thank you for these wonderful studies and continuing to make contact so that I am beginning all over and I shall get through week 12 – I SHALL!!!!
Thanks again, God bless you! Diane
What a wonderful testimony. Thank you Jesus! Your post on this subject of holding on to “His” garment has given me renewed strength, hope and faith. God bless you and thanks.
I am now on day 6 of this program. I am very excited to experience all the weeks to come. I know I have a long way to go, but i’m staying positive and really zoning in on my relationship with god and trusting him again. Over the years of my disorder i’ve lost much of my faith, i’ve set aside any relationship with God that I had only to find myself deeper and deeper in my disorder. I truely believe that I can overcome this-but only with God’s help. I’ve tried and tried to beat this on my own, only to find myself in a life filled with drugs and alcohol. I know now that I CANNOT beat this on my own…which I honestly thought otherwise before. I didn’t even want to believe I had a problem. Anyways, i’m only 20 years old… And i’m bound and determined to overcome this now that i’m still young. I desire to live a healthy, happy, and christ-like life. And what better time than now?? Thank you so much Heleen for all that you do.
I’m at Week 1 Day 4. I am loving it so much. I am so glad I made the decision to do this 12 Weeks. It has touched my heart more than any other Christian book I’ve read that deals with weight loss. Already I am having a measure of freedom. I really believe that God will conquer in this area of my life.
Wow. I want to talk to the person who wrote that letter. Not because I want a magic fix but because I have been in OA for years and I am realizing that all the stuff about not eating this and that FOR ME has kept me in my eating disorder. I am struggling to find a belief in God right now but I love the message that we can be totally healed. I have no support available to me other than OA yet I feel that message that we will \\\’always be sick\\\’ and need to avoid so many foods is not good for me. I really need help right now to believe – I have been struggling with this eating disorder for so long and I feel like suicide is my only way out. I am 45 years old and this has robbed me of everything. There are no treatment centres where I live and I have no money to go anywhere where there is. Sorry to be negative but it is how I feel. I want what the person who wrote that letter has because I have seen that happen for people.
I’ve just read Catelyn’s post. I know a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then but I want to say (and I am not that woman that she wanted to meet) that I used to go to OA, and God used it to bring me back to Him. They do indeed say you’ll always have this problem, and all the meetings clashed with church services, but for a couple of years God used it to show me my self-centredness and deal with my fears and anger. At the end of that time I had worked the steps as best I could and He clearly said to me that I could believe OA that I would always have this problem or I could believe Him when He says that He can heal me. I said no contest, and I left OA to return to church. Since then He has been dealing with so much in me.I want to encourage everyone that my God is well able to help us. I am beginning to believe that this problem can be gone for ever. This is such a wonderful program. I have been doing the Appetite for Freedom CD course through a group of people through our church. We are on week 7 now, and I am experiencing a lot more freedom. I had to confess to a lot of unbelief, pride, and people-pleasing. Before I started this course, a couple of months before that, I got really honest with God and I said to Him that I didn’t really believe He was ever going to heal me, as I have struggled for years and years with first bingeing and then more lately just overeating for emotional reasons. (Bingeing stopped when I managed, by His grace, to cut out chocolate, which was for me a chemical thing and took me straight into binges). His response to my honesty? To show me this course! Isn’t He kind? I have been growing in my relationship with Him since then and I see now that I can do diddly squat to help myself and He must and will do it all for and in me, as Andrew Murray said in his excellent book. (It is an absolute eye-opener, and I thoroughly recommend it). To all who struggle I say God is faithful – lay down the struggle and surrender! God will do it.
I am probably opening myself up to temptation to relapse now, as I have been so bold as to say this, but hey, I know that it is God alone who can and has helped me. No doubt I still have a lot to learn and a lot of surrendering to do, but I see now that He loves our honesty and will help us.
God bless all who struggle! Ursula
I thank you ladies for your honesty. I gives me hope. I know the only thing that can help me is my total surrender and faith in God . I pray everyday for his will. Please keep sharing. God bless