May 21
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Romans 8:31
It can seem as if the entire force of our world is against us when we face cancer. Our lives become one appointment, one test, one result, one surgery, one treatment, and one anxious moment after another. Everything is upended. We feel as if we have lost control. Our world is no longer what it once was. But … all is not against us. The scriptures constantly remind us that God is always with us, always on our side. God is the one unmovable constant in our lives, the one who is eternally here to make the world right again.
Thank you, dear God, for sticking with us when everything else seems to be against us. We know when we walk with you we are blessed with a constant source of help. Amen.
May 22
In you, O Lord, I take refuge …
Psalm 71:1a
We are quick to take refuge in many other places rather than in God …in medicine alone, in “quick fixes” or in answers that don’t really deal with the root of our problems. No one solution is enough to care for all our needs. But placing our trust and our lives in God will offer us a foundation that is eternally steady and strong, even when all the other solutions let us down. God’s refuge offers us a peace and a security that no other refuge can.
Help me to take refuge in you, O Lord. Help me to see that you are the eternal source of all my strength and peace. I need you as the foundation for everything else in my life. Amen.
May 23
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:37
When God’s people break under the burden of illness and human limitation, over and over again, God reaches out to revive and renew us. In all these ways and countless more, God intercedes, over and over again, to help, to save, to restore and revive us – making us more than conquerors over all that rises up to bring us down. In God cancer cannot, will not, destroy us. It may threaten. But it shall not break us because God is stronger than any disease we can know.
We are deeply blessed, O Lord, by your love in our lives. It is infinitely more powerful than anything this world throws in our way. For that we give you thanks. Amen.
May 24
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy.
James 1:2
Don’t mistake what this passage means. No one expects you to be happy about your difficulties. The word happy comes from the word “happenstance”, meaning our feelings depend on what happens to us. But we are expected to strive for joy. Joy is a sense of well-being, a sense of security, a sense of peace, no matter what happens to us. Joy is the feeling we want to achieve. Joy is feeling secure and content in every situation, in every challenge and in every way, knowing that God is taking care of us even in the most difficult of days.
God of joy, help me to know your peace which passes understanding. Help me to feel your security beyond compare. Help me to be well within my spirit no matter what challenges come my way. Amen.
May 25
My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
Isaiah 26: 9a
Often times it’s in the stillness of the night when our fears and worries prey on us the most. When we lie in the dark, our minds begin to work overtime. It’s in the quietest of hours when we open to thoughts we would rather not have and possibilities we would prefer not to realize. It is in those hours when we need God the most. It is in those hours that we need to call out for God’s peaceful and tranquil voice to whisper reassurances in our ears. It is then when we need to hear the reassurances of a God whose voice can call us back into the dawn of a new light once again.
God of tranquility, God of peace, whisper to us when the night overwhelms us. Whisper to us the words of hope and reassurance we need to hear. Amen.
May 26
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:2
Prayer is connecting with God. Prayer is opening up our minds, hearts and spirits, listening for what God has in store for us. When we connect with and listen to God we will undoubtedly see that God has been acting in our lives in many more wonderful ways than we could ever have imagined. God is good. God wants only goodness for us. By taking the time on a regular basis, a constant basis, to connect to that goodness, we find the wonder in our lives.
We need to be reminded about the goodness around us. Thank you for giving it to us, God. Thank you for helping us to see it today. Amen.
May 27
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Isaiah 40:4
There are many deep valleys on this journey called cancer. There are many steep mountains to climb. The path we walk is often not smooth. And the ground we trod is littered with obstacles all along the way. But the path doesn’t always have to be so difficult to traverse. These prophetic words promise us it can change. They promise us that when God is allowed to lead us on the journey we can begin to find ourselves guided every step of the way. It also means that God will carry us through when the trek is too hard for us to walk it on our own.
We are up and we are down. We stumble and we fall. We seek, O God, an easier path to take. We ask that we can see you before us smoothing out the way. Amen
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