"You are looking only on the surface of things." -- 2 Corinthians.10:7

Lisa's mother was physically and verbally abusive, and her brother sexually molested her. By age 16, Lisa was a full-blown alcoholic, pot smoker, doing LSD and cocaine. But Lisa had given her life to Christ. It was through the power of God that she was able to overcome her drug and alcohol addictions. She finally became clean and sober but after her detox treatment, out of control eating behaviors surfaced. The shame and guilt of the sexual abuse was so overwhelming that Lisa turned to drugs and food to numb her pain. Because of the rejection from home, she looked for acceptance with boys and began sleeping around. She became depressed, starved herself and snorted cocaine.

Lisa's mother was schizophrenic and when she died weighted 400 pounds. One of Lisa's biggest fears was that she'd end up fat like her mom. So she became obsessed with over-excercising and purging. She'd continuously purge throughout the day, often times an hour. Lisa continued to spiral downward. She was losing more and more weight and began experiencing health problems from the B/P. She couldn't keep a job because of lack of focus and constant anxiety.

Remembering how God had delivered her form her drug and alcohol addictions years before, Lisa began to pray that God would bring something into her life that would help her with her eating disorder. She knew that all things were possible with God but needed someone to help her walk through the memories that were hidden behind the B/P. Because she had been in other treatment centers for drug/alcohol, she knew that the answer could not be found in only changing her behavior. Lisa wanted a heart change. No counselor or program can produce a heart change -- only Christ can.

In order to change, Lisa had to stop meditating on her negative thoughts, because these thoughts led to negative emotions and behavior. She was taught 2 COR.10:3-5, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world, On the contrary, they (our weapons) have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." What this means is Lisa was fighting with fleshly, earthly weapons, trying to control her negative thoughts with purging/food or planning tomorrow's activities. This verse helped her realize that her fight is not in the flesh but spiritual (with the enemy). She had the authority to take her thoughts captive and replace them with the word of God. It as by His strength that she was able to choose to stop purging to cover her emotions.

She released to God the hurt, anger, pain, fear, frustration, and codependency issues. Lisa was able to make the connection that she viewed her heavenly Father like her earthly Father. She transferred her earthly father's traits to God, and that carried over to her belief about God. She began to realize that this was a distorted image and made the choice to trust God, even through fear and discomfort. She let God fill this void (2 COR. 12:9), "My grace is sufficient for you ..." Lisa focused on the answer, not the problem. It was Jesus that saved her life."He is very present in the time of trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

KATIE LUCE'S RECOVERY STORY

Katie Luce, author of "The Pursuit of Beauty" was thirteen when her parents divorced. It affected everyone in her family severely. Trust was broken, hurt set in, and her world was shattered. She would never be the same again. She began to hang out with the wrong crowd. As the years went by her self-esteem grew worst. "Although I seemed confident on the outside, I began to doubt my opinions and compare myself to everyone else … At first I was restless and wanted to be different - more attractive, thinner, smarter, more athletic … I was not satisfied with anything about myself. I thought if I could just lose at least ten pounds I'd be totally happy."

Katie began to diet because she was seeking her father's approval. She was determined to lose weight, because in her mind then she would gain his and everybody else's' acceptance. She became so desperate that she didn't care what it took to be thin - diet pills, laxatives, starvation, she tried it all. Then she discovered bulimia. The perfect diet solution, or so she thought. What a lie from the pit of hell. She slipped into depression and pulled away from reality.

She cried to her friend that God must hate her. Her friend told her she needed to find the Word of God. And she did. Katie wrote, "As I began to replace the negative thoughts about myself with the powerful Word of God, an incredible metamorphosis took place. I didn't stop bingeing and purging right away, but I began to love myself and think of myself the way God did. I knew I was set free and that it would only be a matter of time before I would be able to stop overeating. Once I had been healed on the inside, the outward manifestation soon followed." -- Katie Luce, The Pursuit of Beauty, New Leaf Press, 1997, pp. 44,54,55,83,84.

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