Release Article: The Challenge of Food Addiction

In helping women and men to manage food intake, the church often presents few alternatives. Nor does the largely all male leadership understand the impact the issue of food has on the lives of women. Nor can the evangelical or his church provide deliverance from food addiction through information and rules. As I was sharing with a couple the work that we were doing in the area of food addiction, the woman who was in her early forties shared with me that she started dieting at the age of seven! She was a pastor’s daughter, and she was trying to look at that age like her petite sisters.

Bible verses say that rules do not work in the spirituality transformation or character changing process, nor does information substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit. So we are pushed to the place where our own hearts have to be the final and only protection against addictions. Further, it is within the heart that the challenge of food compulsion and addiction has to be faced. That is fine because God intended the Christian’s heart to be the ultimate line of defense any way.

The other reality to be remembered is that we may not be used to managing our hearts as aggressively as we need to. To be challenged within ourselves to deal with this is a beneficial task. Working through this will make a person the better for it, setting the heart free.

Finally and most importantly, grappling with and conquering the challenge of eating is a deeply practical way to learn the life of Christianity. All the elements of the addictive cycle are matched by the basic elements of Christian spirituality transformation. As a person works through the challenge, the spiritual exercise will cement fundamental realities of the love of God who is God the Father and our Identity found in Christ into the depths of the heart. This temptation, compulsion, and addiction could end up revolutionizing the Christian life.

If the church ceases relying on rules and religious information, and embraces a deeper God with deeper devotions—that is, focusing on how to have a personal relationship with God—this challenge from Satan may eventually resound to our good and the glory of God. Merely overcoming addiction is not the great goal. Overcoming food addiction through a deep love relationship with God is the goal. With God involved a person will not need excess food to cope with life.

This excerpt is taken from the book Food Compulsion and Addiction: Supplemental Readings for Becoming What God Intended by Dr. David Eckman.