Let cancer or anything you’re going through; help nudge your soul closer to Jesus.
Diagnosed With Breast Cancer booklet, free offer link below:
Have you ever gone too far when researching a disease?
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I sure went too far, many years ago, when I was first diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. Those words struck fear and so what did I do? Right away, I was on the internet researching everything I could about inter-ductal carcinomas of the breast. And once I printed out my research in a big pile? It was bigger than my Bible [and that right there should have told me something]. Because the lure to know more about your cancer can replace your desire to know more about God. I quickly realized it was foolish to read all day about carcinomas of the breast and not invest that same time in reading what God had to say about it. Somebody once wrote, “For every hour you spend researching cancer, spend two hours studying God.” [Good advice because having cancer can make you crazy].
Now, my cancer reoccurred in 2018, and that time I let it drive me deeper into God’s Word. Like the Old Testament prophet, Hosea put it. He says in chapter 3, verse 6, “Let’s strive to know the Lord.” Well, do I “strive” to know Christ? Do I yearn, do I press on and try hard to get to know him? I should. Anyone facing a big challenge should. Because: “The people who know their God will be strong and take action” it says in Daniel 11:32. You want to be strong? Want to be the sort of person who is decisive and takes action? Then find your delight in the Lord. And if you meditate on it day and night, God says in Psalm 1, “You will be like a tree planted by flowing streams that bears fruit in all its seasons, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever you do will prosper.”
I’d like to think of cancer as like this big wall. You can sit at its base and spend hours studying its height and thickness, learning about who built it, how it was designed, which stones were used, what sort of mortar was applied. Or you can spend hours learning how to scale the wall, how to climb to the top to get above it all; to get a better vantage point on what God wants to do.
And as you’ve probably heard me say, let cancer [or any other hard thing, for that matter], let it be like a sheepdog, snapping at your heels, and driving you down the road to calvary where you otherwise might not be inclined to go. Every day we either nudge our souls closer to Jesus or away from him – there’s never a middle ground. Finally, what if your doctor paints a bleak picture about your cancer? Well, take this advice from Dr. John Piper who wrote, “Satan’s designs and God’s designs in our cancer are not the same. God designs to deepen our love for Christ. God’s designs is to wean us off the breast of the world and feast us on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help us to say and to really feel, ‘I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.’” Friend, you may die from your cancer. Or it might return, and I might die from it. My cancer may come back a third time and take my life. And if it does, it will not have won. Because for me, to die is gain.
I share this and so much more in my booklet “Diagnosed with Breast Cancer.” And if you are in treatment, or know someone who is, I’d love to send you a free copy. Ask for my cancer booklet today at joniradio.org. Again, joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends