I want to share the story behind a song of mine called “I Run To You”. This song came as the Lord began having me publicly share concerning my deliverance from my old identity. I was set free and became a brand new creation in Christ on November 7, 1981 and was overwhelmed with joy and a freedom I never realized was even possible.
Due to the nature of my past life - my former sexual identity - I was afraid to share what I had been set free from with anyone else. I was afraid the church would disown me due to the nature of my temptation and feared the world would mock me for even daring to think I could walk out of what I had once assumed to be my true identity.
That all changed in 1988 - seven years after my initial freedom - when I dared to receive God’s grace for me and openly share that God had brought me out of same sex attraction and given me a heterosexual way of thinking about myself.
My fear of rejection was very legitimate, but that fear was conquered by the massive love of Jesus Christ toward me. Sadly, I was rejected by several Christian friends and was mocked by the world, but something amazing began to happen.
When you begin to declare what He has done for you people begin to receive hope - and faith is released – but Satan begins to work as well. God calls us to lay down our reputation for His reputation and for His glory. The world needs to see that there is a way – but how will they see if those who were once blind don’t tell about their healing? The truth is this, we have all fallen into the depravity of sin no matter how “innocent” our past may seem in comparison to mine. It still separates us from God. The good news is the Father is waiting for us to simply run to Him…day in and day out!
In Luke 15:11-32 we find the story of the prodigal son. What is so amazing to me is that when the father saw the son…the son’s head was bowed in shame because he had squandered his inheritance and messed up his life and was now coming home to seek his father’s mercy…the son walking slowly in shame…but what did the father do? The word says he ran to greet his son and to welcome him home!
That is the God we serve! He runs toward us even when we are covered in the filth of our sin and crippled by the shame of our failure, he runs to us and wraps us in his arms of love. Let’s do this in the coming days. Let’s be like our Father and run toward Him. Let’s allow him to wipe away the filth of our sin and replace the shame of our failure with the complete and utter embrace of His great love towards us. Let’s run to him!
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song, I Run To You, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/i-run-to-you/
Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/03/15/10/57/tunnel-4933231_1280.jpg