At the beginning of 2011, after years and years of dealing with food addiction I decided that it was time to truly surrender this issue to the Lord. My past has been marked with many defeats and a few victories when it comes to my food addiction, but sadly I have not really been set free spiritually when it comes to this struggle. Even as I write this review I am not completely “free” from my food addiction, but I have such tremendous hope that soon I will be doing a little freedom dance with the Lord. That is the wonderful thing about being a Christ follower, you always have hope 
This time around I am not on a “diet” as my goal is to change the way I eat completely for the rest of my life. Diets work, but for me they have only been a temporary solution to a reoccurring problem. So if I am not on a diet, how am I going to conquer my food addiction? Simply put, I am placing my trust in God to work in and through me to conquer this addiction that I have not been able to conquer on my own for over 25 years. Yes, I still need to exercise and eat healthy, but my goal is to change the way I think about food. I am going for a complete mind overhaul, and hoping that my body will follow suit.
God’s timing is perfect, and as I submitted to Him to help me with my food addiction, He led me to a resource that would encourage and help set me free from my addiction. That resource is Lysa Terkeurst’s book “Made to Crave”. This book is so different from all the other “diet” books out there as this book focuses in on the spiritual battle of food addiction. The book does not come with a ready made eating plan for you to follow, but it is jammed packed with information about how we become free from our addictions through surrendering our self to God through prayer and reading His Word.
Through reading Lysa’s book I have realized that I have craved food more than God. I have made food my idol. I have made food my god, and unless I change the way I view food I will never have victory over my addiction. To be honest, up until this point I have never really viewed my battle with food as spiritual one. I didn’t really want it to be a spiritual battle, because deep down inside I didn’t really want God to change my heart about food because I didn’t really want to change. That attitude was sin in my life, because I am to put no person or thing (food) in front of God, and I have placed food in God’s place for over half of my life. With God’s supernatural help this will change.
As mentioned above I am only just beginning my journey to break free from food addiction, so I invite you to go on this journey with me. I will try to share my ups and downs as I strive to become spiritually free from my addiction to food. One part of this journey has to do with reading Lysa’s book “Made To Crave”. Lysa also created a bible study that goes with the book, and I will be going through that study as well with a few friends. As I work my way through the book and Bible study I will share insights from the book that will hopefully help and encourage the readers here at the AMH website. However, I will tell you now that if you are struggling with any form of a food addiction, I would encourage you to buy Lysa’s new book “Made To Crave” today.
As I end my post today, I am nervous because I have just told the Internet world that I am tackling my food addiction and my past experiences have ended in failure. However, if I truly am putting my trust and hope in God to win this battle, I will most assuredly win. That statement is true for you too, no matter what battle you face. If you put your hope and trust in God and not yourself, you will stand on victory’s side, and I just might get to see you do a little “freedom dance” of your own.
Blessings Friends…
About Kim Uden
Wonderful post…I understand your battle because it is mine too. And yes, I read Made to Crave and yes, I am strengthened to do battle with the food thing! And it sounds like you are too. I will be praying for you!
I love your honesty. I have also had to deal with addiction not food, but work. It was a journey to get freedom and I had to learn some hard sometimes not so easy leasons. However, I would not change it for the world. The freedom dance you spoke about WOW it was awesome (I am still free)I do have to keep it in check.
I did want to share with you, my husband is dealing with the same food issue that you are, he also started a new this year. He is not on a diet he says “I am doing it God’s way” He actually ask God if he can or can not eat something. He has lost 40 pounds. He posted a blog on concerning cravings. He spoke about the craving that we should have. Here is the link: thoughtstoponder.wordpress.com
Again thanks for sharing your heart.
Tracy
Thanks, Sweet Sister! I’m walking this journey with you!
Thanks for stopping by Pam… We will win this battle with God