That’s just how I am, that’s how God created me.
Today I had a conversation with X. He had a question…
X (let’s keep it neat) had quite a lot of girlfriends (some of them were also married) and slept with them (+ the rest). That’s just how he was. Thats him, and it felt good. He felt completely at home in the situation, so God had created him that way. He felt in his heart that it was all right. Then it was good, right?
I started to speak with X about my car driving skills. As soon as I get behind the wheel of a good car, I GO! Pedal to the metal, all the way, the car is having a great time, the road seems to be made for it, I feel completely at home behind the wheel. Go go go, that’s me! Yeah!
But yes, those traffic signs that say max. 120… they are so annoying.
Why are those signs there, I asked X? Well, they were there to protect road users from dangerous behavior because speed is dangerous. (X is from a country where 100 km per hour is the maximum speed).
OK, and suppose an accident happens while I did not keep to that speed, what happens then? Well, then maybe people would die, I would rightly get a fine and the insurance would also give me problems, since it was my own choice to……uuhhhhhhh yeah…..oops….
Very good X!
But yes, it feels good to me and I feel so comfortable in it. Then I’m all “me” when I do that! That’s how God created me, so it’s allowed, right?
Oh no, not at all… And X suddenly understood in which direction the conversation was going and looked a little less happy by now.
Then we brought in Deuteronomy 22:13-22 and also Revelation 14:4 and Hebrews 13:4. And there are many more verses where God clearly states that X’s behavior is sin. And that God does NOT approve of that, on the contrary.
But yeah, “that’s just how X is”…. “he can’t help it that God created him that way!”
Dear X… do you really think that God created you in a way that goes against God himself? Well, no, that wasn’t possible according to X, that would be strange, he suddenly thought.
So where does that behavior come from? From God or from “something else”. And it’s up to me to listen to that little voice in my head when I get into the car… do I put the pedal to the metal, even though I know that the legislator has a perfect reason not to allow that?
Dear X, God does not bully you with His rules. God is kind to you and to others. God always has a good reason to make a rule: to protect you against (mental) illness, (spiritual) death, against yourself… and your own sinful thoughts and behavior…
God loves you very much. That’s why He put signs along the highway.
What you feel, what you label as “good” or “I feel at home in this”, or “in my heart this feels so good”, is absolutely NOT a good way to determine if it is good, on the contrary:
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
Do you listen to your deceitful heart, or to God? “That’s just how I am, that’s how God created me”, will not work if you have to appear before God… You can play exiting word games with me, not with God… He doesn’t play games.
X says he will stop his behavior after this explanation. I pray that God has really opened his ears, really opened his heart, and that with God’s help he will put off his old self, with God’s love, God’s strength and God’s wisdom.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
