In the Bible, living out one’s faith is sometimes referred to as a race. A race we are called to run well—and that includes living with our sexuality. Living a life of sexual integrity involves perseverance—and that is something Jesus enables us to do.
Click the following link to dig deeper into what Ellen is saying on in this blog: Women: Running the race well—Part 2.
Running the race of faith, for women who want to live lives of increasing relational and sexual integrity, not only means that we’ve got to be willing to throw off distractions, but also to keep going when it’s tough. We need perseverance.
Sometimes that means, according to Hebrews 12, that our loving heavenly Father is going to discipline us. Now, that can be a scary word, because maybe some of you might think that that always means punishment. But in Hebrews 12, it actually is spoken of as something that a loving father does to educate his children, to correct them and keep them on the path, the path that is one of righteousness and of increasing freedom over sin.
Think about a shepherd who loves his sheep. If that sheep is bent on going out to the edge of a cliff, or going toward a thorny or poisonous bush, a loving shepherd is going to use a rod to tap, maybe even with some strength, to get that sheep back on track. That hitting, that tapping of the sheep may cause a wound, but it’s a healable wound, rather than something that could be far more dangerous.
So for us as women, we need to be willing to keep on going when the road is tough, when our loving Father perhaps is disciplining us in the sense of pruning us, as it talks about in John 15.
I think about some women who have lovingly and trustingly endured the Father’s discipline, and others who resisted it. One woman went through this process, disengaging and really putting space between her and a sinful relationship. It was anguishing for her, but it led her into a spacious place of freedom. Another woman, who had gotten involved in homosexuality, again against what she knew was God’s design, refused to separate herself from this woman. And when I followed up with her several months later, I could tell by the tone of her voice that she had remained in the relationship, that she was not willing to receive the Lord’s gentle but firm discipline to take her out of that relationship.
I don’t know where you’re at, but it’s worth it to keep going when it’s tough. To run that life of faith means that we need to be willing to endure the Lord’s discipline, which always comes to us from the loving hand of our Father.
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