Struggles

I listened to a message today that was left for me on my voice mail. It was one of my sweet friends that has been through Truly Fed classes, and currently leads a group called Truly Fed: Going Deeper, when I am away. The tone of her voice was sad and defeated- yet at the end of the message she mentioned the powerful word hope. What do we do during times of struggle? How is it possible to experience seasons of freedom with food, and then fall back into patterns of destruction and despair?

We shouldn't be surprised when these times smash into our lives. We should expect them. When Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray, He said "Lead us away from temptation" not "Keep them perfect and robotic!" When freedom is your heart cry with food-- giving up binges and overeating, walking away from restriction and starvation, or denying the urge to purge what's been ingested-- there is always what I call a holy tension that takes place. You want to pursue the freedom and the hope of life free from compulsion, but sometimes a dark force seems to take over and we end up behaving in ways that we hate. Paul got it right when he described this battle in Romans. "Why do I do the very thing I hate?" he moaned. Then he reflected that it was the sin inside him. But he didn't stay stuck there. His next utterance was "Thank goodness I have a Savior that doesn't condemn and has set me free from this horrible predicament." When you feel like you are returning to old behavior, recognize that Satan likes to whisper to you that people really don't change. He wants you to believe that what you thought was freedom was just a temporary blip on your screen of failure with food. During the phase in which I was healing from food bondage I remember saying "I know I'm free. I'm just not acting like it this moment." This enabled me to believe in a bigger freedom movement that was taking place in my life- not just the small picture of a momentary action. Your freedom isn't a blip...it is the picture of your new life!