“I’m a Believer” was a smash hit for The Monkees in 1966. A key line in the popular tune was, “I believe in love.” Of course the song was about feelings of love for a girl. A question beckons - Am I a believer of feelings or of something more substantial?
Brittany Maynard tugged on our feelings this past week. The 29 year old, diagnosed with a lethal brain tumor, took her life Saturday, November 1st with a fatal dose of medication. Such a dose can be obtained legally by terminally ill patients courtesy of Oregon’s right-to-die law. This case was widely publicized through an organization called Compassion and Choices, an end-of-life advocate. Chief program officer, Mickey MacIntyre told CBS News he considers it “the next civil and human right.”
If anyone had a “right” to determine when and how they were going to die, would it not have been Jesus the Christ? Yet, in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus said, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” – Luke 22:42.
This popularity of new “rights” across society is nothing short of an effort to proselytize for secular humanism by tugging on a range of feelings. Emotions run high and convictions can be compromised by compassion. I’m a believer of God the Father, His Son and of the Holy Spirit, and my compassion can be compromised by my convictions. That is the tension we live under as Christians today. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”- Galatians 2:20. As Christians, we live in this world but do not live under the world’s priorities. We must navigate through the feelings and desires of the flesh. We have been bought for a price, Jesus’ blood on the cross, and we need to live like it. As Focus on the Family’s Truth Project states, we need to live like we “really believe that what we believe is really real.”
Tips to Be a Believer:
- Know the Son – The Word became flesh, was born of the virgin, blessed by the Father, lived a sinless life, obeyed to the point of death on a cross, put death to sin on the cross, rose from the dead, appeared to the disciples, ascended to heaven and He will come again (Good News: Matthew 1-28, Mark 1-16, Luke 1-24 & John 1-21);
- Embrace the Holy Spirit – The Holy Spirit will teach you all things (Jn.14:26);
- Walk in Spirit of sonship – Heir of God, co-heir with Jesus the Christ (Rom.8:15-17).
Prayer guide: Lord, thank You for Your Son and Your Word as my guides for Kingdom living in this world. Help me walk in Truth with grace as Jesus exemplified. Amen.
A faithful father is a believer that really believes that what he believes is really real.
