Activate Life
 

Please if you can take a few moments to read through the 25 biblical truths, at least once, to familiarize yourself with them. Then, at the moment when you feel that struggle within you beginning, that urge to do something eating disorder related rise up, please, look below and find the biblical truth that addresses where you are struggling. There is one listed for each and every one of the issues, habits, rituals, and disordered thinking that is familiar to an anorexic, bulimic, or compulsive overeater. Find it, read it, repeat it over and over looking at yourself in the mirror the way we practiced before. You are what you think! 

1) God wants you to take care of your body!  3 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

2) The Lord will guide you into healthful living, watering your life like a garden. Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

3) Your body is a sacred temple for God to live in. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

4) You are called to honor your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

5) Using food for comfort doesn't really help. 1 Corinthians 8:8 But food does not bring us near to God...

6) Think before you eat and think before you choose not to eat.  What are you feeling?  What behaviors are you modeling for those around you who might be influenced by you? 1 Corinthians 8:9-12 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

7) Bring your anxieties to God, not to eating food, or denying yourself the necessity of eating food. Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8) Worrying about your food, what you will eat, how you will eat it, if you will eat it, if you feel comfortable once you have eaten it, wastes time and life. Matthew 6:25-27 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

9) When you feel lonely, look to God.  God does bring connections to Him into your life through the people He brings you in contact with.  Many of these connections are only an e-mail or phone call away!
Psalm 68:6  God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

10) Natural foods straight from the earth are the most healthful for your body. Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

11) Walking (which is the best form of exercise there is), can open your eyes to God's presence. Mark 16:12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.

12) Physical exercise is good for you.  Spiritual exercise is even more crucial.
1 Timothy 4:7-8 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

13) It takes discipline to be healthy and in that you need to avoid compulsions of any kind in order to honor God. 1 Corinthians 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

14) And in avoiding compulsions, seeking moderation, not extremes is so important. Proverbs 23:20-21
Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,  for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags

15) It's going to be hard work, but the hard work WILL pay off.  If you chase a fantasy however, which is any thought that isn't real and truthful, you are going to find yourself running around in circles like the "cat chasing it's tail". Proverbs 12:11 He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.

16) It is crucial to take action, activate your life, DO SOMETHING, in order for there to be a profit from it. Just talking about it isn't enough to earn the profit.  Proverbs 14:23  All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

17) Healthful living happens when we bond together.  We need each other, especially to overcome our weaknesses. Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

18) We need to be open to what God and people who are living in God's word reveal to us about our thoughts and actions. Psalm 139:23-24  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

19) When you are struggling, it's important to ADMIT to someone that you are. Struggles happen, it's what we do about them that makes all the difference.  Check in with a Godly accountability partner, ask for prayer. This is how you heal and grow. Don't give up! James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

20) We need loving feedback from others who are walking with God in order to grow. Ephesians 4:15-16
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

21) Healthful living BEGINS with healthful thinking. Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

22) The hunger within you needs to be channeled into a hunger for God, an appetite for His wisdom and life sustaining thoughts. Matthew 5:6 (MSG) You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

23) That hunger within you that is being channeled into a hunger for God will be satisfied by feeding our souls with God's word. Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

24)  Recovery is a process and it will take time.  "Progress not perfection".
1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  Proverbs 20:21 An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.

25)  Please don't compare yourself to anyone else; either in your recovery, in your physical appearance, in what you eat, or how you eat.  This is a time to focus on yourself.  It is something personal; your own journey and walk with the Lord.  It is an amazing feeling to look back on your own journey and reflect where you came from and where you have grown to.  As a spiritual mentor of mine has said "you are building your testimony." Galatians 6:4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.

 

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