Questions & Answers

Many people who are afflicted with addictions and mental health issues struggle with the same spiritual struggle that you describe going on within yourself. The key question is the one that you ask, "Am I really forgiven in view of all the ‘ifs’ connected with my affliction? This cross is so great because I can’t seem to find any comfort as I struggle with it.”

But the fact that you are not alone in this struggle is of little comfort because it is your personal anxiety and doubts about this issue with which you are wrestling. How do you find comfort?

In general, I would suggest that you think about your affliction as both sin and disease. Let me explain that in much more detail. You have a body. You have a soul. You have an emotional make-up that is a part of your mind. One really cannot be separated from the other. If you separate your soul from your body – we call that death. You cannot exist without both a mind and body and a soul. There is a physical part of you, a spiritual part of you, and a rational and emotional part of you.

You live in a culture and in a society that has labeled what you have as a mental illness – a disease. Yet it is a mental disease that impacts your body and your soul. You have an eating disorder which is dangerous to your body, and you injure yourself in some way, hurting your body. As a child of God you feel guilty about hurting yourself in both ways. God says to us: I 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.”

I pray that you will examine the words of the above passage carefully. We all understand the Law part of that statement – “…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…” (coupled with) …. “Therefore honor God with your body.” But it is important for us to understand the reason why we are temples of the Holy Spirit. “…the Holy Spirit…whom you have received from God…You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” You are the temple of the Holy Spirit because of God’s grace and mercy that bought you with the price of the blood of Jesus Christ and made you a child of God by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel in Word and Sacraments. II Corinthians 5:19, “God was reconciling the world unto himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” You are not an exception. You are a part of the world for whom Christ died. God chose to make you his child. You are a blood-bought child of your God who loves you. Galatians 3:26-27, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” This is God’s love for you.

It is important for us to remember that God defines what is sinful and what is not sinful. Since it bothers your conscience and makes you feel guilty before God when you fall into practicing your eating disorder or hurting your body, this is something you can take before the throne of God’s grace in prayer and ask him for forgiveness. As you rejoice in God’s forgiveness, you are strengthened by the Gospel of Christ. Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” You can strive all the more with God’s strength in you to “honor God with your body.”

What defines you as a person is who you are. You are a child of God. You have different roles in life. For example, perhaps you are a son or a daughter, student or teacher, employee or employer. Things may go wrong in one or two or all of those roles. But those wrong things that happen in this sinful world and in the roles that you have do not change who you are. You are God’s child. That fact that you are God’s child is the result of God’s gracious work within you. “You are bought at a price.”

In Romans, chapter 7, St. Paul wrestled with his sin. He says that he continues to do the sin that he does not want to do. He even says, vs. 24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” This sort of sounds like you, doesn’t it? But then he adds, vs. 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” He sums up his situation with the words, vs. 25, “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” That is the way you describe yourself. You want to do what is right and yet, your affliction keeps getting you to do what is wrong. Continue reading Romans chapter 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” You are God’s child. Christ Jesus is your eternal Savior. Be assured that there is nothing in all creation that can separate you from God’s love (Romans 8:31-39).

Let the love of God in Christ give you the assurance of your forgiveness. It is not the fact that you enumerate your sins or that you can guarantee that you will never commit that sin again that gives you the assurance of your forgiveness. Paul would have never had the assurance of his forgiveness based upon his never sinning a certain way again. He knew the reality of his sinful condition. So do you know the reality of your sinful condition. It is God’s gracious love for you that assures you of his forgiveness. Trust in his love and strength for your confidence in his forgiveness.

Confident and rejoicing in that forgiveness, seek help from mental health professionals and physicians for your disease. There is much good evidence-based therapy to help you. Be strong in your Lord who loves you as his child! May he give you peace and help!