It's early on this chilly winter morning and as I sit in my living room thinking about what lies ahead, I am in awe. This is the Lord's day, a new day he has created for us to enjoy. I will choose to rejoice and be glad in it!
As I was checking my emails this morning, I got a notification from a friend. I had recently sent her a card and she responded to thank me but also in her message told me she had recently been diagnosed with a severe disorder. While sad to hear it, I took a few minutes to pray for her and then shot off a quick email reminding her not to become discouraged or disappointed because God still loves her. I think it's so important for us to stand with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and one of the best ways we can do that is to offer the gift of encouragement.
This afternoon, after church, our Sunday school class is going to do a prayer walk. There is a dear lady in our church who has pancreatic cancer. She was given the diagnosis recently of being stage four. When she was given that diagnosis, she did not want to believe it as most of us wouldn't, so she sought a second opinion. The second opinion confirmed the first diagnosis and she was given more information - only 6 months to live. Can you imagine hearing that news? I know if I heard that news, I would spend every minute of every day trying to do everything possible before God called me home. One of the main things I would want to do is to make sure all of my loved ones had accepted Christ as their Savior.
I don't know how many people will show up for the prayer walk but I pray that the majority of our church will. Since it's so cold outside, and a lot of our members are older, there may not be many but we know the Bible says wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them. God will be with us as we quietly march around her property praying for a miracle.
A lot of people don't believe that God is still in the business of doing miracles, but I am living proof that He still does. Almost 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with stage 2B invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer. My odds of living this long were not very good. In fact, I was only given the hope that I might make it 5 years past diagnosis. Every single day, I thank God for allowing me to continue to live my life. I'm so grateful to him and want to always honor him in all I say and do.
Our time on this Earth is so brief. Many days we take things for granted and I believe that is because we are human. We are frail and weak. Through trials, God often allows them as teaching tools to help us grow. And while suffering is extremely difficult, when we can look at it as a purposeful tool, we can thank God even for the difficult times.
Please remember Mrs Anderson in your prayers today. We will be circling her property at 2:30 this afternoon. She doesn't know we're going to do this. Pray that God will hear and answer our prayers. Just like King Hezekiah prayed to extend his life, we're going to ask God to extend Mrs Anderson's life.
Mr. Anderson also has cancer. He was diagnosed before his wife and his just completed his treatments. She has been caring for him all this time and now she has this dreadful diagnosis.
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