I want to share some encouragement this morning. I am a mom of three sons, all estranged, one identifying trans and another homosexual. I lead a group for broken-hearted but faith-filled parents as well, so my head is fairly in this topic on a regular basis.
I am currently reading the BEST BOOK EVER on how disordered sexuality arises and what transformation is and looks like. This book is especially riveting to me, because I am also a therapist, and the author touches on the science behind change (creating new neuropathways) in your brain...and the fact that it takes time. Her presentation on transformation is phenomenal because she gives it succinctly, in terms anyone can understand, and in complete harmony with the Word of God. It also can be applied to ANY problem of the flesh, LGBTQ or otherwise.
The books is TransFormation, by Linda Seiler, PhD.
This tidbit was in my reading last night:
As we continually die to self, renew our mind, and put on the new self, we EVENTUALLY (emphasis mine) develop new neural pathways, and new desires emerge to replace the old. BUT BEFORE we experience new desires, THERE IS A TENSION in the journey where we must embrace the objective truth of who we are in Christ, ***even when our subjective feelings seem to contradict that.*** The Bible refers to that tension as "faith and patience" through which we inherit what God has promised. (Hebrews 6:12)
OMG....doesn't that help you feel NORMAL? Only a few get what I call the "Magic Wand Treatment," where God supernaturally lifts a thing off of us in a moment. But for most things, it is a process and it takes time for it to roll out.
I have not personally experienced SSA or gender dysphoria, but boy have I been plagued at different times in my life with habits and compulsions that I lost control over. That totally were driven by the lusts of my flesh. Now I teach others how to overcome. Linda said something in the passage above that really captured my attention because it addresses the very stretch in the journey where most people give up, throw in the towel, and assume that freedom is not possible and things will never change: It's in that place of "tension" where what you are believing does not match what you are feeling. And sometimes that place of tension lasts a bit, and it's exhausting, disheartening, and a whole host of other adjectives. That's why we need each other.
So I share this for the strugglers and for the moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, and others who are standing in faith for their prodigals, and for those who are battling something else---we are in need of "faith and patience," we are in need of endurance, so that after we have done the will of God we will receive what He promised. The enemy hacks away at my thoughts all the time, but I just hack away back at him. We need our "It is written" statements on hand, and we also need each other to be the Aaron and Hurs in the waiting.
The key is to never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever give up! Don't stop standing, and having done all to stand. If you go to your grave, go to your grave believing!
OH GLORY TO GOD!!