Worse Than Cancer

Updates: 

• I am grateful to have gotten my third treatment of chemo this week before Hurricane Milton arrived. Additionally, it is good to hear the rain while you are in bed recovering! Thankfully, we did not sustain any damage and are praying for those who have been impacted.
• Each week I receive a chemo drug that has been nick named “The Red Devil.” This is a strong drug that must be administered by hand instead of through the normal IV machine. I have done well with the drug, but this time, it was more difficult. I was quite nauseous, and I anticipate I’m going to have to “gird up my loins” for the next round. The metal taste it produces is memorable!

Prayer Requests and Praises:

• I am thankful that my treatments have not been delayed. Someone told me they were praying my treatments would “be on time, every time” for all twelve of them. This is a great prayer. 
• Since June, I have had a swollen lymph node on my neck. It has been noticeable to medical staff, but since my chemo treatments began, it has nearly vanished! In fact, the physician assistant who examined me this past time said she could not find it. This is a good sign the chemo is working. Please pray this happens to all the lymph nodes throughout my body and where the cancer has progressed into stage four. 

What I am Learning: 

• I have learned the greatest threat to my life is not cancer. There is something worse than cancer: sin. The worst thing cancer can do is shrivel up my body until it physically dies. Sin is far worse. Sin shrivels up the soul unto an eternal death. 

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:20–23

• Jesus Christ died for me and has forgiven me of my sin. However, Christians should never downplay sin or treat it lightly. The real Satan (not the red devil) is seeking to devour all of us (1 Peter 5:8). The Scriptures repeatedly tell us to flee sin and pray for deliverance from temptation.

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:12 

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” Hebrews 3:12–14

• I have made a list of areas of spiritual growth that I need the Lord to sanctify me in during my remaining treatments. That growth is more important than the growth of my cancer cells. Have you considered where you are being tempted lately? What areas of your spiritual life need to be addressed directly in these upcoming days and weeks? Don’t delay. Make a list, confess where you have fallen short, ask God’s forgiveness, believe Christ will change you through his death and resurrection, and read the Bible attentively.

What Has Been Encouraging: 

• Sometimes a sentence lingers and leaves an impact. I have received encouraging text messages with memorable quotes. Here are three of them:

“The Lord permits us to feel our weakness, that we may be sensible of it; for though we are ready in words to confess that we are weak, we do not so properly know it, till that secret, though unallowed, dependence we have upon some strength in ourselves is brought to the trial, and fails us. To be humble, and, like a little child, afraid of taking a step alone, and so conscious of snares and dangers around us, as to cry to him continually to hold us up that we may be safe, is the sure, the infallible, the only secret of walking closely with him.” (John Newton)

“There is never a crook God makes in our lot, but it is in effect heaven’s offer of a blest exchange to us…God first puts out his hand, and takes away some earthly thing from us; and it is expected we put out our hand next, and take some heavenly thing from him in the stead of it, and particularly, his Christ.” (Thomas Boston, The Crook In The Lot, 48)

“Trust is not a passive state of mind, but a vigorous act of the soul, by which we choose to lay hold of the promises of God and cling to them despite the adversity that at times seeks to overwhelm us.” (Jerry Bridges, Trusting God, 216)