Jeremy Camp and Melissa Henning were married in October, 2000. Four months later, in February, 2001, Melissa died of ovarian cancer. It rocked Jeremy’s world. Lots of questions for God and lots of challenges of faith. The Christian movie that was released earlier this year and the song for today was written from that story – I STILL BELIEVE.
Sometimes we are strong in our faith and there are times when we are weak. The important thing is that we continue to walk by faith – we still believe. Sometimes we praise God in jubilance and sometimes we cry out at God, “Why?!” BUT WE STILL BELIEVE. It would be awesome if we always lived on the spiritual high mountain but there is this other place called “reality”. Reality is where we have peaks and valleys – good things and bad things happen as we follow Jesus through this life. Reality is where we cry out, “How long…” (Revelation 6:9-11). The key is that WE STILL BELIEVE.
The righteous sufferer who wrote Psalm 22 had great faith; however, it wasn’t very pretty at one point because he could not understand God being good and his own personal circumstances being bad in spite of his faithfulness to the Lord. He cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning” (Psalm 22:1). That’s not a very pleasant thing to say to God since the Lord NEVER forsakes His children. We will be studying Psalm 22 before long and we will see that Jesus is quoting the entire Psalm – which ends in praise of God for being such a loving, caring God. The point is that we all struggle in our faith – the key is that WE STILL BELIEVE. In God’s time we are back on the mountain praising Him.
Read Mark 14:33-36 and II Corinthians 12:7-10. Then listen to I Still Believe by Jeremy Camp. You also might consider watching the movie I Still Believe based on the story of Jeremy and Melissa Camp. Then keep believing on the mountaintops and in the valleys as well. One day there will be no more valleys – only the new heavens and the new earth.
Mark 14:33-36
He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.