Many are celebrating this new year with hope that it will be more fruitful. While people promise to make a change for their own betterment, real and lasting transformation often doesn’t occur. The reason? We have become a society that focuses on symptoms instead of fixing the root cause of our problems.

According to one poll, the top resolutions people often make are: get a better job, quit smoking, save money, eat better and drink less. It’s easy to develop unhealthy habits and difficult to remove them from our lives. Do we vow that “This will be the year I make a change!”, but soon fall back into the same comfortable ruts? Jesus warned against this mindset of reliance on our own authority. “But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:34-37).

While changing one’s life isn’t bad, we must ask ourselves “For what purpose am I doing this?” For a Christian, change is essential and must occur in our lives daily—not just once a year.

The willingness to make true change is the basis for living a Christian life. God’s angels rejoice when they see us repent, “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

But true repentance requires God’s Spirit working in our lives. Without the Holy Spirit, we are blind. Jesus warns: “…And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14). Those of us who were properly baptized made a commitment to God the Father with a promise of true change. Let’s be sure we are always found doing just that.

This week Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman facing a rare and debilitating form of brain cancer, chose to end her life. Maynard “suffered increasingly frequent and longer seizures, severe head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms. As symptoms grew more severe she chose to abbreviate the dying process by taking the aid-in-dying medication she had received months ago,” stated a spokesman for Compassion & Choices.

Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist who has battled ALS for over 20 years, commented on assisted suicide in 2006, saying, “I think it would be a great mistake. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”  Recently he has changed his position and feels those with terminal illness and pain should be able to end their lives as they see fit.  “We don’t let animals suffer, so why humans?” he told the BBC, noting that there should be adequate protections so that no one is condemned to die against their wishes.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control, over 40,000 suicides were reported in 2012, making it the 10th leading cause of death in the US.  Suicides are nothing new but legalizing them is a growing change.  Many of the arguments supporting legal suicide seem plausible, especially when we hear such emotional stories. But emotions should not rule our will!  We must submit to the Will of God, of which most of the world has no knowledge.  “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are on the road to destruction. The god of this age has blinded the minds of those who don’t have faith so they couldn’t see the light of the gospel that reveals Christ’s glory” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Common English Bible, CEB).

An opponent of assisted suicide, Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet, said this week, “Brittany Maynard’s story is incredibly heart-wrenching. When you look at assisted suicide based on one individual, it often looks acceptable. But when you examine how legalization affects the vast majority of us — especially those most vulnerable — the dangers to the many far outweigh any alleged benefits to a few.”

One fundamental point lacking in most arguments either for or against assisted suicide is this:  What is God’s Will?  We understand this world is ruled by Satan, and he imposes his will mercilessly upon it.  But that doesn’t negate God’s Will or His desire for humanity.  God alone wills who should live or die.  “The LORD! He brings death, gives life, takes down to the grave, and raises up!” (1 Samuel 2:6, CEB).

While Christ was alive on earth, He knew that His death had been pre-appointed.   He agreed to die, not with dignity or in comfort with loved ones. Instead He died a most undignified and painful death.  His brethren abandoned Him during His trials.  And during His last moments on earth, even God the Father separated Himself from His Son, “and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:46).

Christ did not commit suicide, but He agreed with the Father as to the time and manner of His death. He gave the world opportunity—eternal life because of His sacrifice.  We owe the Creator nothing less than to live a life, like our elder brother, constantly fulfilling God’s Will. 

Our society fulfills its desire for entertainment in an ever increasing level of shock and complete imbalance.  With the ability to record pictures and video on almost every cell phone in use today, it’s rare to not see the aftermath of accidents, disasters and wars captured with immediacy and made available for the world to see.  There is no lack of desire to see images more and more horrific in nature.  Mainstream media has standards of what they cannot show and often warn or black out images deemed too graphic.  But standards relax and what was unacceptable to show 20 or 30 years ago is now common place on nightly news.

We can attribute these growingly macabre desires to the god of this corrupt age and the influence he has unleashed on this world.  But Satan has been at work since his deception in the garden and mankind’s lust for gore is not a new one.  King David was given a heart wrenching decree by God because he gloried in bloodshed: “But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood’” (1 Chronicles 28:3).  Christ said that David was “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22) but more importantly we know that David had God’s Spirit.  Like each one of us with that same Spirit, David saw the world with his eyes opened by God. But, he stumbled because of his love of war and bloodshed and was not allowed to build a physical house for God.

Living as a Christian in this world is difficult.  The subtleties in how we interact on a daily basis can form lasting habits and those habits can either direct us toward godliness or away from it.  It’s too easy to mirror the standards of this society and grow accepting and accustomed to the comfort it appears to give.  But true Christianity should find no comfort in the beliefs of this age: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). 

Each of us must strive to build a spiritual house—one that God would desire His Spirit to dwell within.  It is imperative then, for our eternal existence, that we let our “conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).  Living a Christian life is not about “what I can’t do” but instead “what I should be doing.”  With that mindset we can conduct ourselves in a manner suitable for Christ.