September 8
Love is patient.
I Corinthians 13:4a
Patience is a hard thing to have when you don’t feel well. It’s tough to hold onto when life is uncertain and full of disappointment. But if we have a love for life, if we have love for those in our lives and if we believe that God has love for us, we can find strength in patience and serenity in our circumstances. It takes purposeful resolve to place a patient trust in what God’s love can do. But when we do, God’s love can deeply enrich our lives and richly deepen our relationships. In that, we can find the power to know our lives are worth living and fighting for.
In my impatience, help me to see, O God, the power in trusting and waiting for you to give me the best of what I need. While it’s often so hard to wait, I know when I wait in you I will surely find the answers and help I need. Amen.
September 9
He will guard the feet of his faithful ones…
I Samuel 2:9a
When we believe in something – a goal, a mission, a treatment plan, a way of life, or a power that is greater than we are, a power that is working only for our greater good – we are given strength and ability beyond our imagination. When we believe implicitly that God is working to help us and heal us in the ways we need healing most, we can summon an amazing capacity to grow and change for the better. When we believe unreservedly in the path we are on, we open ourselves to a tremendous wealth of knowledge, renewal and joy. What a blessed gift this strong faith can be!
Dear Lord, as I place my faith in your power to guide me in the way I most need to go, I find an ever-growing encouragement and sense of hope in the days to come. I pray to summon your power today and to know without doubt your presence in my deepest needs. Amen.
September 10
Love is kind.
I Corinthians 13:4b
We need to remember to be kind to ourselves when we are living with cancer. We need to make the time to care for ourselves, to rest enough, to laugh enough, to resist overdoing it enough, and to find ways to renew ourselves enough every day. To love ourselves means to understand our own needs and not to neglect them. Now, especially, is the time to love ourselves enough to say no to demands that drain and drag us down. Now is the time to say yes to the opportunities we have to refresh ourselves and create a peace and contentment that revives our spirits and lives.
More than ever, I need to be reminded of my responsibility to myself. I need to be open to the essential components that will help me find your healing. O God, I look to you and know that you want only the best for me. I need to want the best for myself too. Amen.
September 11
He said: The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.
II Samuel 22:2
Our own power alone is never enough to gain all that we need. Each of us requires a power beyond our own, a power that is perfect, infinite and pure. God’s power is just that. God’s power takes over where we alone cannot. It fills in the gaps, carries us through when we are weak and provides a way when we are lost. God’s power enables us to find our way out of trouble and through the darkness in our lives. God’s power gives us grace in spite of ourselves.
O God, I look to you this day because you I know that you give me everything I cannot give myself. I know your understandings are infinitely beyond mine. I ask for your understandings to empower me with hope and wholeness. Amen.
September 12
Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant.
I Corinthians 13:4c
One gift that cancer can give is the opportunity for us to reframe our attitudes and approaches to life. The realization that life on earth is finite and fragile can serve to propel us toward healthier ways of reacting and relating to the world around us. If we love the life we have been given and love the people who share life with us, we have the blessed prospect of living more humbly, less contentiously, more gratefully and less angrily. What a gift it is to live a life where peace prevails and grace abounds. Life is tremendously richer when we understand, appreciate and accept these gifts.
Dear God, sometimes it’s hard to realize that cancer can present any gifts. But the gift of reframing our lives is a blessed one. Help me to accept this gift. Help me to use this gift in life-renewing and life-affirming ways. Amen.
September 13
My shield and the horn of my salvation.
II Samuel 23:3b
The love of God arms us with resources we can scarcely imagine. It empowers us to face challenges we think we cannot overcome. It enables us to overcome despair in triumphant ways. It encourages us to seek life-affirming directions we have never sought before. The love of God protects us and propels us through the most difficult times in our lives. On this love we need to place our very existence. And on this love we can find the strength and resolve we need to meet every obstacle we encounter along our way.
Through every danger, toil and snare I have already come … because of you, O God, because of your everlasting love for me and my well-being. I am grateful for you – and your love – today. Amen.
September 14
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;…
Psalm 8:5
God gives us the ability to control many things about the direction of our lives. We are deeply blessed with the gift of having choices and options. God gives us reason, free will, thought and the power to learn and grow. We have the ability to alter the course of our lives though the attitudes we possess, the support we gather around us, the kind of medical care we seek, the foods we eat, the physical activity we engage in, and the spiritual understandings we develop. All these gifts have a strong influence on our health and well-being. It is up to us to use this gift of choice and the power God gives us – to create an atmosphere of wellness in which to live.
Generous God, you have blessed me richly with gifts that can change my life for the better. Help me to use these gifts and the choices you offer on this day you have made, so that I may live in health and peace. Amen.
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