Category: Why?

Prayer Is For Me

11/3/2020

What is Prayer? A solemn request for help or expression of thanks expressed to God or an object of worship. The words pray or prayer are mentioned around 500 times in the Bible. There are other words mentioned many more times than the word prayer, but prayer is an intimate word that is associated with our relationship with the Creator. When a relationship is considered important to us, we do what we can to spend time with that person and share our thoughts and feelings. We get feedback on ideas or questions we may have and enjoy making memories. We value certain relationships, and yet many times when it comes to our forever relationship with God, why do we not develop it as we do the others? Well, we might say, because He is God, and there would be certain aspects of an earthly relationship we would not focus on. True, I understand that, but what about the rest?

Why exactly do we pray? God tells us to pray, He wants us to pray, and we need to pray. Prayer is not for God, but prayer is for us. It is given to us by God as an avenue of communication to Him just as the Bible is given to us as His avenue of communication to us. God’s Word tell us in Psalm 50:15 “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Matthew 6:9-13 labeled as the “Lord’s Prayer” is given as an example of how to pray. Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Our prayers are our source of strength that allows us to believe there will be an answer because of who we are speaking to. Prayers are foremost for our salvation from sin and for our confession of sins once we are saved.

We could lay out many more verses of prayer, and I believe as Christians we know we should have an improved prayer life. We realize that we must pray, but do we realize how important it is for us? God does not need us to pray because He needs help, but it is the means God has for things to happen. It helps Christians show His love to others, and allows paths to be open up for God to work. It is always available, and nothing, except for unconfessed sin, can hinder our prayers to God. It humbles us, especially when we see answers to those prayers we so fervently lifted to Heaven receive an answer. Honestly, sometimes we are surprised when they are answered. I never get used to a prayer asked with full belief and answered amazingly. Lastly, we get to experience God through prayer, it brings us close to Him, and we see evil conquered.

Prayer is a cancer patient’s lifeline. How many needles have I received? Hundreds. How many side effects have I experienced? Not done counting. How many pains have I endured where I cried out to take them away? How many scans have I so anxiously lifted up to God sitting in the waiting room with kids of all ages doing the same or at least their parents? Each and every time a scan came back clear, the sigh of relief was heard around the world and the small tears welling up in my mom’s eyes were wiped away. Another hurdle jumped and cleared. But the next time will that hurdle stop us in our tracks or do we clear it by centimeters?

One of my closest friends recently got stopped by a cancer hurdle, stupid disease. She was diagnosed and is awaiting surgery, with complicated tests results mixed into the longest waiting period one has to endure. The biopsies, the test results, pre-op appointments, and the surgery scheduled dates are enough to put someone in a tailspin. What does one say to someone going through it? From experience, unless asked, stories are unnecessary. They need us to say we are praying and mean it, they need us to say we are there for them, and we can help them in any way. Just to hear someone cares and is praying takes the feeling of cancer aloneness away. It allows a cancer patient to feel like the weight of the disease on their shoulders is being held up by others like Moses was assisted at the battle against the Amalekites. It gives a feeling of power to conquer and strength to move forward. Knowing someone is thinking of us makes the results of biopsies and anxiety of surgery that much more bearable.

There is nothing better than prayer. It has changed the course of a sea’s direction, battles fought, walls standing, an infertile womb, lion’s mouths, a day’s time, a centurion’s heart, prison bars opened, and nations turned to God. All of these stories in God’s Word could be our stories, and they sound like our stories. For me, prayer changed death to life, hell bound to heaven bound, infertility to mothering, with thousands more answered prayers. We must not take prayer lightly, and we must pray today. WE can change everything.

Faith in Things Not Seen

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4/18/19

I began this blog after a lunch date with a friend discussing children, school, cancer, and church. It was then and there that the tug for writing my story came to fruition. Her daughter was fighting a three year battle… My heart is heavy beyond description, but my loss has no measure to hers and her family. Her precious girl went home to be with the Lord last weekend. There is no way I can describe their loss. No way on this earth. My prayers and encouragement may be a help, but that is all I can offer.

In the last few months, I have seen families hurt by this disease, and I tried to answer the “why? “. I do not know if I have real answers, and for most people that have seen God work in their lives over and over again, they kind of already know those answers. We read God’s word, hear God’s word preached, and see Him work because of our faith. Faith is the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Everyone has faith in something. Having faith in God who takes every aspect of our lives in His hand and gives us hope, direction, and love makes life on earth seem bearable. He gives us evidence through answers to our prayers; whether He answers them how we want or how He wants. We can then have hope that He will do it again. Then the cycle repeats.

What are tough times? They come in all forms like taking away those who are precious to us. Cancer took other things from me: almost half my teenage years, school attendance, a healthy body, a head of hair… Tough times can only be labeled by us. We have to fill in the blanks ourselves, and no “tough time” is less important than someone else’s. They range from a broken body to financial troubles to spiritual downfalls. Whatever it is when we feel downtrodden and lost, then it is our tough time. It comes in all forms, and sometimes we do not see it until it is too late. Our relationship with God can keep our eyes open to what is around us and help us see a tough time. Then our faith is strengthened. The cycle repeats.

Cancer took so much from me, but it gave me a list of amazing things that would fill pages and pages. Which is why I have made note of many of them here. There are so many gifts and blessings that come from tough times, but it is important to grieve when we feel empty. Sometimes we cannot be strong for others anymore and just have to go to God and grieve. The grieving process is how we get back to remembering those blessings. Blessings that give us hope; blessings that increase our faith. Then the cycle repeats.

We have faith in so many things. We trust when we sit down that the chair will hold us. Our vehicle is important to our daily lives. The education we receive is used to improve our future. Each doctor we visit with helps us make decisions about our health. Faith is all around us, and we miss it sometimes. But when the tough times come, we remember what we are supposed to remember about God and His power to get us through. Next, we have to act upon it and have faith that He will. Easy to say, easy to do; because we live in faith in other things every day. I promise, it is easy to do. And then the cycle repeats.

Hebrews 11, the “Faith Chapter,” is all about people in the Bible that did do faith. Some of them in the daily things and some of them in the Godly things. Ordinary and extraordinary. But they all experienced a faith in God that brought them closer to Him. Abel offered up a sacrifice that pleased God; Abraham left his home and followed God’s leading; Sara believed and received a child in her old age; Rahab help God’s people escape. People who trusted in something they could not see but had seen the results of their faith in the past. Their faith put them in the Faith Chapter. It starts like this, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

What is The Biggest Question?

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12/18/18

Cancer. Why does that word bring a gasp, an extra heartbeat, a heavy chest, a picture of someone we know? Because it literally affects just about each and every person in this world. We all have a connection to cancer because we have it or had it or through someone we know or someone we know who knows someone. There are cancer treatment centers in many towns, because it affects so many people and the need for a nearby center that focuses only on this disease is crucial. Every single day thousands of people are diagnosed with cancer, and thousands of people are treated for cancer.

Cancer. What does that mean? We see the effects of the treatment, but what exactly is cancer? The long and short of it: Our body is made up of trillions of cells, and sometimes those cells turn abnormal for one reason or another. Because cells divide, an abnormal cell divides and it does so rapidly for there is nothing to keep it in check. It can appear in so many forms, it is unbelievable; or not appear in any form on the outside which is more unbelievable. I think there are signs that maybe we overlook as regular aches and pains, but it shows itself most of the time in some form or other. My cancer appeared as a knot in my lower abdomen which was an ovary that was taken over by the cancer. I had a sign, but I was also at the tail end of puberty, so we were keeping an eye on it. I was very healthy and had no other symptoms. Because the abnormal cells divided so rapidly, my tumor was very large when the doctors opened me up.

Modern medicine has found a way to test this silent killer through different types of abnormal cell killers. Once a diagnosis is in place an oncologist will work to get the best protocol which was tested on patients in a study and proved to get results as the best treatment. Chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, etc… Chemotherapy was the only cancer treatment I received when I was diagnosed. I received it in the form of an IV drip, orally in a pill, and through a spinal tap each month. My protocol set up by the doctor for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma had seen great results in patients, and to this day this type of cancer has a high cure rate. We saw results very quickly, but we also had many prayers go up to the Great Physician on my behalf.

Cancer. Why? Why are so many people affected by this disease? I do not know. Everyone has their thoughts about it, but there are studies of things that are known to cause this disease. We all have heard of them. Why me? I do not know. Why my family? I do not know. You see, six months after my diagnosis, while I was still going through treatments, my mom went into the dermatologist and had a spot removed on her face. It was melanoma. Cancer again became the word in our home and affected another member of the family. It was a scary time. The doctor was confident that they removed everything, and she did not have to have treatment. We let out a sigh of relief to have such great news concerning her.

Why? That question is asked when cancer is a part of two members of a five-member family unit, and our story was not quite over in this department. But the question of “why” and others are asked by the family and those around us. It does not bother you when they are asked because it can be a healing process for you to talk about what you are going through. It can be a help for those asking the questions. They might be facing the same crises or a similar one and just need a word or two of encouragement they might receive through the same conversation.

Whatever reason for my life to see cancer is only answered through my Almighty God. For me and my family; God Said Cancer. The “why” has been answered thousands of times. First off, I did not have Him fully in my life as my God and my Savior. I accepted Him as my Redeemer less than a year after the diagnosis. Secondly, God said cancer and three months later God said no cancer. My body was full of disease and the three-month scans saw not a trace. Why cancer? So God could perform a miracle. Why cancer? So the people around us could pray for us and see God work… Why cancer? So our family would become strong together in a new community… Those around my parents in the work environment would see their strength and come to our little church… We could talk to the nurses and doctors about what God did for us… I would lose my hair and feel totally embarrassed and humbled which helped me realize I was not in control… We would get a little article in the paper about my diagnosis and our church… I would lose all hope in the middle of the protocol and see God bring heart and nausea medicine to help me… Our community would come together and raise money for our cause, and remember it well when we speak to them on visits… We would travel as a family to the National Spelling Bee… These are just a few of the reasons up to this point in the journaling of our story. There are so many more before this.

Hebrews 13:21 is talking about how the God of peace “Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Every single thing in our lives is there to help us be more like Him who is working to show others the glory that is due Him. In the moment, super duper hard, but so very important. They say hindsight is 20/20, but I want my foresight to be 20/20 and want to remember to ask God for this.

Cancer. Mine is hindsight, others is now, and still others are in the future. Why? Because God has amazing things to show us. And He had amazing things to show me as I continued my journey past the one-year mark.