By now, many of us have learned that Christian singer/song writer Vicky Beeching, the writer of songs like ‘Great is Your Glory’ and ‘Deliver’, has publicly announced that she is homosexual. Anticipating criticism, she claimed in advance that ‘I feel certain God loves me just the way I am’.
In a way, her assertion is correct, if we only view God as a Creative benefactor bestowing gifts of love of which His creations are beneficiaries. Twice in Psalm 145, God is said to be ‘loving toward all He has made’. But God is more than just a Creator. He is also a Covenant God. Whether evidenced in His covenants with Abraham, Israel or others and especially noted in His covenant to mankind through the blood of Jesus, God is lifted up as a covenant making God. What this means is that there is more to ‘FEEL’ and acknowledge than His love for His creation. We must ‘FEEL’ and acknowledge His acts of saving covenant as well. But, what does that include?
1. We must feel and acknowledge the guilt of having willfully breached God’s standards of holiness. These include but are not limited to acts of greed, deceit, theft, murder or sexual impurity of which homosexuality is a part. Colossians 3:5-6.
2. We must feel and acknowledge the shame of lawlessness that these sins generate. Participation in them makes us ‘law breakers’ before God, regardless of what desire there may be to make them simple attempts at ‘self-actualization’. I Timothy 1:8-11.
3. We must feel and acknowledge the despair of coming under God’s declaration that those who do such things or approve of those who do have become ‘objects of His wrath’. Romans 1:18-32.
4. We must feel and acknowledge the hope of knowing that Jesus came into the world to save us from the wrath to come. His blood sacrifice, and that alone, can atone for the sins of a person who has fallen beneath the wrath of God. I Thessalonians 1:9-10.
5. We must feel and acknowledge the call of God offering us forgiveness through faith in His Son Jesus. God graciously offers this forgiveness to those who call on Jesus’ name. Romans 10:13.
6. We must feel and acknowledge the need to turn from that which God abhors and turn to that which He accepts. Be holy as He is holy. I Peter 1:15-16.
7. We must feel and acknowledge the humility to submit to those things that bring gladness to God’s heart and glory to God’s name, seeking His grace to help us want to do and then do what He has declared is His pleasing will. Philippians 2:12-13.
8. We must feel and acknowledge the joy of the Lord as it strengthens us in His ways. Nehemiah 8:10.
9. We must feel and acknowledge the anticipation of struggle as we fight to do God’s will despite pressures from without and fears from within. II Corinthians 7:5.
10. We must feel and acknowledge the strain of reaching toward God’s goals for us regardless of what could be lifelong disappointment or endless delay. Hebrews 11:13.
Yes, as our Creator, God loves us. And we will feel that and should acknowledge that. But, as the One Who ALONE offers, through His Son, to rescue us from the wrath to come, God gives us much more to feel and acknowledge. MUCH MORE! THAT, too, we must feel and acknowledge, if we are to have FELLOWSHIP with Him and not simply have FEELINGS about Him.