Same-Sex Attraction

On behalf of those who have turned away from the homosexual lifestyle to follow Christ yet continue to be attracted to members of their own gender Mike Ensley asks:

[W]hat about the rest of us who deal with this issue and haven't come to our "happy ending" yet? What about those of us who continue to struggle with same-sex attraction (SSA), even after choosing to follow Christ? We're caught in a sort of identity limbo, unsure whether we can or even should hope to experience heterosexual desire, get married and start a family someday.

With candor and biblical wisdom Mike encourages fellow-strugglers to join him in taking the following steps towards the renewing of their minds and experiencing freedom:

Stop making unfair comparisons

Stop obsessing about how much you will (or won't) enjoy heterosexual sex

Quit letting your temptations dictate your identity

Do what you know you should be doing

Mike's article is valuable reading for those trying to resist same-sex attraction as well as those committed to aiding them in their pursuit of godliness. Also, much of what he says has application for all of us regardless of the nature of our personal temptations.

God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle

How frequently we hear these words offered in pressing times, usually preceded by the words, "Like the Bible says..." It's interesting that what many people mean by their paraphrase is something along the order of "God will keep you from being overwhelmed." But is that what is actually promised? I don't think so. 


The verse that people have in mind when they say this actually has to do with temptation. Paul is warning the Corinthians against idolatry and immorality like that engaged in by the Israelites in the desert (1 Cor.10:6-11). The actual promise, found in 1 Cor 10:13 is that God will not let us be tempted beyond our ability but will provide a way of escape so that we can withstand the temptation without giving into sin. The emphasis of the verse is moral but this is often lost in the way we loosely paraphrase the text. (Might this be an indicator that we value a culturally-derived notion of psychological well-being more than holiness?) The believer is never justified in saying that he or she just had to sin because the temptation was too great. I like the way Ed Welch puts it in his book Depression: A Stubborn Darkness: "He will never put you in a situation where a sinful response is the only way out." 


If Paul really intended to make a general statement about God never giving Christians more than they could handle, then we'd have a hard time explaining his own testimony in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9: "For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself...But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead."