Below is a video from the presentation of “Gaining a Healthy Relationship with Food.” For the various counseling options available from this material visit www.summitrdu.com/counseling.
NOTE: Many people have asked how they can get a copy of the seminar notebook referenced in this verbal presentation. You can request a copy from Summit’s admin over counseling at counseling@summitrdu.com (please note this is an administrative account; no individual or family counsel is provided through e-mail).
“God, You are More Satisfying than Being Thin”
REPENT TO GOD for how my sin replaced and misrepresented Him.
Ganing A Healthy Relationship With Food — Step 4 from The Sam James Institute on Vimeo.
Memorize: Acts 3:19-20 (ESV), “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” As you memorize this passage reflect upon these key points:
- “Repent… turn back” – The core meaning of “repent” is not “feel very bad” but “make a U-turn” back to God.
- “Blotted out” – God has no intention of shaming you with your sin. Instead, he wants to free you from false idols.
- “Times of refreshing” – Our anticipation of repentance should feel like the longing for a refreshing bath.
- “The presence of the Lord” – Repentance is what reconnects us with the source of our strength and hope.
- “May send the Christ” – Repentance unlocks the door of our life to unleash the return of the hero, Christ.
Teaching Notes
“So I go to war against gluttony and indulgence, not because I want God to love me more, but because God, who already loves me perfectly, warns me that gluttony and excess are my enemies– regardless of how good they may sometimes feel. I go to war against gluttony, not to build a body that others admire, but to maintain a soul ‘prepared to do any good work’ that God can use to bless others (p. 88).” Gary Thomas in Every Body Matters: Strengthening Your Body to Strengthen Your Soul
“I had to, in short, practice being loved by God (p. 176).” Sheryle Cruse in Thin Enough: My Spiritual Journey through the Living Death of an Eating Disorder
“As long as you believe that changing something on your outside will solve the problem on the inside, the deeper issues will stay hidden and unresolved (p. 109)… You need to turn to someone who offers a better relationship than the one you have with your eating disorder (p. 191).” Carolyn Costin & Gwen Schubert Grabb in 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder
“Women turn to food when they are not hungry because they are hungry for something they can’t name; a connection to what is beyond the daily concerns of life. Something deathless, something sacred. But replacing the hunger for divine connection with Double Stuffed Oreos is like giving a glass of sand to a person dying of thirst. It creates more thirst, more panic. Combine the butter and efficacy of dieting with the lack of spiritual awareness and we have generations of mad, ravenous, self-loathing women (p. 219).” Geneen Roth in Women, Food, and God as quoted in Carolyn Costin & Gwen Schubert Grabb in 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder
“Positive guilt is the sense of shame that we feel when we are stepping outside the bounds of what is familiar, when we are breaking the old rules… Positive guilt is guilt we feel when we are breaking rules that need to be broken (p. 99).” Jenni Schaeffer in Life Without Ed
“Repentance is also required and that the client, through spiritual pride, has concluded, ‘I must handle life on my own. I cannot trust God nor will I be dependent on him. I must take control.’ This position, born out of pain, confronts the reality that control is elusive… Belief in self-sufficiency ends in continual striving. Anorexia is a misguided attempt to be self-sufficient; bulimia utilizes self-striving in an effort to gain control (p. 324-325).” Linda Mintle in “Eating Disorders” in Caring for People God’s Way edited by Tim Clinton, et al