From fighting Cancer to celebrating Christ

Part 2

In part one, I invited you to come along on a journey. It’s not a journey I wanted to make, but it is a journey I was called to walk by faith. The journey comes with a question, “How do we move from cancer to celebration?”

I am 51, a husband of almost thirty years, a father of five, and a pastor fighting for my life with stage 4 cancer. No wonder I chose Psalm 42 to invite you to walk through with me as we both learn to walk through tough seasons of life. Last week we saw a deer in verse 1, and the deer was in trouble; that deer is you and me!

Again I invite you to open your Bible and look at Psalm 42:2-3 There is simply nothing that clarifies life more than a diagnosis that may well take your life. Instantly, things that were once important become trivial, and the things we once ignored become precious. This is how this deer feels. Once he took water for granted, but now he longs for it; he dreams of calm, flowing, refreshing, life-giving water. Verses 2 and 3 bring us into the reality of this picture. The psalmist knows instantly what he needs more than anything and where he is to find it. My dear friends, Jesus Christ is a Friend that sticks closer than a Brother, the Water that brings us life. The psalmist longs and desperately needs to be in God’s presence; then he knows everything will be ok. Once the shock began to wear off (if it ever does completely), we began to process the next steps. There is a biblical principle that is really helping me in my journey. This principle involves me separating those things in life which I need to entrust to my Lord and DO, and things I must entrust to my Lord and NOT try to do. This distinction is critical for the journey ahead of all of us. In my fight, this means that since I have an aggressive type of cancer, I must fight it aggressively. But what about my prognosis? Do you see? There it is- one thing to trust and do, and another to entrust and slide across to my Lord who is always with me through His Word and prayer. I must decide to trust the Lord and live by first taking my treatments (that are working! Praise the Lord!) and entrusting the length of my life to the One who holds me in the palm of His soveriegn hands. Let us begin to understand how to trust God and obey from the practical to the profound and entrust to God what is not our responsibility. As we do this day by day, we will begin to experience the Water that brings life as we trust and entrust our Lord Jesus Christ to do what is best for our good and his glory. www.momsinprayer.org

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