April 16
But strive for the greater gifts and I will show you a still more excellent way.
I Corinthians 12:31
Cancer can drag us down a path that is full of fear, negativity and pain. It pushes us hard and it’s often difficult for us to resist its destructive power and persuasion. But the way of fear, of negativity and of pain is not the way that God wants any of us to go. God’s desire for us is to experience much more instead. God’s desire for us is to know courage and peace. God’s way for us is to know promise and possibility. God’s plan for us is to know comfort and release. We do not have to be resigned to days that demoralize and defeat us. There is something better. There is something more. Don’t ever believe that there is no hope, no achievable plan for healing of your body, mind or soul. God has a way and when we put our trust in God’s hands we can find it.
I’m looking for your more excellent way, O God. I’m looking past my anxiousness and my doubts to find the healing you offer, the hope you promise and the help you reveal. Amen.
April 17
… for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.
I Corinthians 14:33
There is certainly incredible turmoil around each of us in this life. And with cancer there is surely much turmoil within. Cancer turns our lives and hopes upside down. But God has not created us to live in turmoil. God has not made us to be torn apart or to exist in pain. That is why when anguish and suffering come into our lives we need to look to God for our help and our hope. God does not want turmoil to define us. Instead God wants peace and tranquility to preside over our days. When struggles come and we find ourselves burdened and weary, we need to turn from the sources of chaos and disarray and turn toward the Source that provides serenity and grace instead.
Thank you, dear God, for always holding out to me the way to find healing from everything that torments and troubles me. I pray to recognize the help you offer and to allow it to transform my life. Amen.
April 18
Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.
I Corinthians 16:13
When we are threatened in any way, we sometimes quickly lose our perspective and our confidence. Undoubtedly, cancer is right at the top of the list when it comes to the biggest threats in each of our lives. Cancer can coerce us into questioning if God really cares or will help us in our distress. It can tempt us to give in to fear, to persistent doubt, to worry and to chronic negativity. But God keeps promising that none of that needs to last. God keeps promising that we are not alone, that we are being helped, that we can find healing, that God indeed does understand. The scriptures are full of the witnesses of countless saints of the faith who also suffered and were deeply scared. And the scriptures are full of their ultimate claims to faith, to God’s very real and evident role in healing their troubled lives. We can be witnesses to the same faith too.
Ever-present God, I certainly waver a lot. You know that, just as I do too. But I am so grateful that you don’t cast me aside when I do. You still keep offering to me your comfort and your strength. Amen.
April 19
Let all that you do be done in love.
I Corinthians 16:14
It is so important to keep our focus on what this life is meant to be about. It’s essential to remember why we were created. We were created by God in love, to be loved and to share love. Love is what binds us together. Love is what causes us to reach out to care. Love is what propels us to resolve anger. Love helps to soothe pain. Love enables us to overcome bitterness. Love gives us reason to go on. God’s love is boundless, unconditional and eternal. It is because God loves us so much that God does not want us to suffer. Love relieves our distress. When we accept God’s love and live with the knowledge that in God’s eyes we are cherished, we can live with greater confidence in our healing and have greater hope for the journey we are on.
Loving God, gracious God, I know you are devoted to me. I know you treasure me beyond compare and only want what is best for me. Today I ask for your devotion to carry me through and remind me of how precious I am in your sight. Amen.
April 20
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:3
We have been created to live abundantly in God’s image, to reflect the nature of God in everything we do. And that nature is one of healing, of joy and of peace. Anytime any one of us is not experiencing fully the nature of God, God actively works to provide it for us. God works to give us the help we need to reclaim what is our birthright as those created in God’s image. We have at our disposal, already, the means to be well and whole again wherever we need it, the way to experience delight every day and the ability to live in serenity. God wants nothing but goodness for us. When we are not healthy God wants nothing more for us than to find wholeness and well-being again. We need to claim this desire of God’s and hold tightly onto it. This knowledge and belief gives us hope and strength to meet each new day and everything each day brings.
Dear God of life and goodness, when the circumstances of my life wear me down I need to refocus my understandings and perspectives on you and your plans for me. I know they are plans for healing and joy, and when I forget, I need you to remind me again. Amen.
April 21
Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you.
2 Peter 1:12
All of us need to keep coming back to the truth of who we are in this world God has made for us. When life gets rough, when we are threatened and vulnerable, we need to be reminded again and again how loved we are in the sight of God. Cancer can make us feel deeply alone. It can cause us to seem forgotten and abandoned. It can force us to think we will never see better days or health again. But the truth is we are not in this by ourselves. We are not deserted and discarded. We are instead given the help and the hope we need to find recovery and strength once more. God’s infinite and unconditional devotion to us stands as a beacon to us when our days are at their most difficult. We must never stop remembering that God does not want our distress to last.
There are plenty of days when I feel as if I am hanging on only by a thread. And I wonder when it will break and I will fall into bottomless despair. Tell me again, O God, that this will not last, that I will have better days ahead. Amen.
April 22
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
Proverbs 16:3
We believe too often that we have to carry this burden of disease and recovery all on our own. We get so caught up in what we think we need to do that we forget to think about what God can do. And God can do just what we think we can’t. When the responsibilities seem too big, when the decisions seem too complex, when the answers seems too uncertain, we will discover relief when we remember that this is not a load we must carry by ourselves. God is constantly providing us a way so that cancer does not destroy us. God is already working on our behalf even before we realize what we need. God is forever offering to us help to carry the load and help to carry us when the load is too much. We need to allow God to work in us. Then we will find the path to be filled with so much more hope and peace.
I try to shoulder far more than I should, dear God. And then when it gets to be too hard I realize how much I need you to help see me through. Help me to realize that I need you sooner so that I don’t wait until I am so overwhelmed. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment