The Three Letter Word-Part 2

Last time I wrote about a God-given process whereby we desire to grow in independence in our teen years, and that we need to manage it.  It’s not bad.  It just needs management.  The same is true of your sexual nature. 

                When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he expressed his hope that “your whole body, soul, and spirit will be kept blameless until the coming of Jesus Christ.”  He’s not wagging his finger here.  Instead, he’s acknowledging God’s process of developing us throughout life (sanctification) isn’t just a spirit thing.  God’s glorious work in you involves your spirit, your soul (who you are), and your body.  It is not an accident that you have sexual drives.  God made you a sexual being.  It’s not even that you have a sexual part of you.  It is interwoven into your whole person.  You can’t separate your masculinity or femininity and still be you.  But, like all things good, it needs management. 

                Now some people don’t care and operate under the “if it feels good do it” concept.  These people can’t be helped.  If you want to jump off a cliff because it’s a great thrill, go ahead and enjoy the ride, but don’t expect the rest of us to clean up your mess.

                For the rest of us, we want to love God and others and it’s sometimes hard to figure out how our sexuality fits into this.  First, I want to dispel a myth: your sexual desires are not at war with you or your faith any more than your hunger for ice cream is at war with you.  They just need management.  Start out by giving thanks.  Thank God that he made other people really good-looking!  Thank him that he’s made an insatiable desire in you to eventually marry someone and know them on the most intimate levels emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  Even thank him for the desire to touch and be touched. 

                So, we need to start on this playing field, embracing what your creative and loving God has given you.  Paul said to Timothy, “Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”  In fact, in his critique against cults, he complains that “they forbid people to marry.”  Look through cults in history and you will often find those groups manipulating or forbidding one-on-one committed, married sexuality.  And finally, here’s the big kahuna: our Father explains Christ’s love for us by comparing it to a bride and a groom.  A bride and a groom at their wedding are excited to spend life together…and to get to the wedding night!  This has nothing to do with Christ having a sexual desire for us.  But God is saying, that intensity of desire that a groom has for his bride is a great picture of just how incredibly Jesus longs to be close to you.  Check out Ephesians 5. 

                This head and heart stuff is a crucial beginning.  Now what about the day to day?