Few concepts are more alien to our culture than expected. Today you can take a picture of a check with your phone and instantly deposit it into your bank account without moving out of your seat.
This stood out in my own life as I struggled with the problem of changing my same-sex attraction. When I started advising someone a few years ago, I thought if I followed a number of prescribed steps, my attraction would go from male to female. However, after seven years of hard work, I began to feel disappointed and depressed because it hadn’t happened Why didn’t the change happen as I thought?
- Until the day it happened to me.
- Did I realize that heterosexuality is not my ultimate goal?Holiness is.
- And my holiness ultimately does not depend on the transformation of my attractions.
- Once that became clear.
- I began to see the change differently.
The transformation of my orientation is the type of change that is not guaranteed in this life. God never promised me I’d suppress my same-sex attraction. I remember Paul praying to the Lord three times in 2 Corinthians 2:12 that his thorn in the flesh might be removed. And what is God’s answer?” Is my grace enough for you?(2 Corinthians 12: 9). God decides which thorns are left and which he will remove, for his glory. Attraction is a particularly painful thorn to bear, I have no guarantee one way or another.
In fact, promising a change of direction can be quite damaging; actually, there is no recipe for prescribed steps that will definitely lead to a reversal of attraction and this kind of thinking can make the change of orientation an idol that must be performed Everything is lost If my hope is based solely on becoming heterosexual, I would have no reason to have hope.
However, make no mistake, change is guaranteed. What happens when I invest heterosexuality as my ultimate goal and replace it with holiness?What happens when I turn to Jesus, trust in the promises of His word, and fight the battle of faith for the Spirit?I’m changing! This slow (often painful) process is called sanctification and is an inevitable kind of change for all true Christians.
And here’s something: my sanctification here on earth may or may not include a change in my attractions. By conforming to the image of Christ, God can see how appropriate it is not to change direction until the day of my death, for the purpose of my final sanctification. Can my same-sex attraction be one of the thorns?that he left to increase my faith and demonstrate his power and grace in my life.
I want to be?Now, stop making war on my flesh and be like Christ. The wait is very hard! Fortunately, the Bible teaches me how to handle waiting. When I feel the groans in this body, I have great reason to hope.
I look forward to my complete and definitive adoption as a child of God, which includes the redemption of my body (Romans 8. 23) and I need hope because it is not yet there; Besides, the hope you see (present now, immediately, instantly) is not hope Who is waiting for what you see?(Romans 8. 24).
Instead of “mending now”, the Bible tells me this: “But if we wait for what we don’t see yet, do we wait patiently for it? (Romans 8:25). No matter how precisely my body and my broken feel, but still not adopted as a child of God by Christ, should I patiently wait for my complete redemption? although I can make a bank deposit from my cell phone.
Discussing the empty promise of change of direction, Wesley Hill, who is attracted to the same sex, states that: “Suffice it to say, I believe, that the true spiritual and theological risk of this kind of “victorious Christian life”?is to avoid the state of “it’s on its way. ” The kingdom of God in its fullness is expected to be here now, without having to endure its slow, mysterious and paradoxical display until christ’s return. a picture of my check, do I need to be happy to be in the car?Bank.
Believe me, it’s really hard, but the reality is what is it?That I experience God, for now it is in pain and groans, in the struggle for contentment, that God reveals and transforms me, takes away all my idols from me, gives me more of Him, and prepares me for an eternity of contentment in Him and without pain.
It is in the passenger seat of the car that I see the beauty of the road, the majestic mountains and the stunning sunset that I would not have seen if it had been magically transported to my final destination, and what an impressive final destination it will be. It is in the expectation of being sanctified, according to the image of Jesus and mortified to delight me in him when he sees him face to face (2 Corinthians 3:18).
My orientation may not change in this life, but complete sanctification is taking place (1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24). He’s not here yet. But I think I can wait for him.