December 2
Today, I had my husband back. Norm got up and moved around and joked with me. It’s a rare event since cancer entered our lives. I know he has a long way to go, but each day of respite is a delight.
Throughout this challenge, we have been supported, encouraged and prayed for by family and friends all over the US.
Before the diagnosis, Norm’s pain and overall body itching never stopped. He wanted to claw out of his skin. He was angry at God who could heal him, but chose not to. He knew people prayed for him, but in his mind, the prayers did no good. He walked in the darkness of pain and despair. Like a black hole, time seemed to stand still as he circled round and round without hope, closer and closer to the pit of absolute, overwhelming despair.
The prayers that Norm considered useless served as safety harnesses, holding him back from the pit, keeping him from giving up all hope. They not only kept him from falling, they pulled him back towards the light, eventually allowing him to see the light and restoring his hope. He recognized that the prayers lifted him up and that he was not alone in this walk.
Our prayers are powerful for those in need, piercing through the darkness, supporting the one who cannot see. A prayer at the right time delivers the mind and soul, drawing back the broken and feeble, who cannot survive on their own.
Thanks: I am grateful for family, friends, and those we do not know who have prayed and continue to pray for Norm and as we battle this cancer. I am also grateful for those who send kind thoughts and words of encouragement and support our way.
Prayer: Strength, wisdom, courage and hope as we continue this path God has chosen for us. Though tough days lie ahead, with the possibility of more despair, we pray that our hope does not diminish and remains near at hand.
Rejoice: Today, I rejoice that my husband had a day of hope and laughter.
Where’s the joy? It’s easier to be joyful when things go well. But we live in a world filled with broken people, and there will be times when things won’t go well. My joy is in the hope that is in Jesus Christ.
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:22-39
TRICIA LATHROP 