Relief for the Pain of Your Cancer Diagnosis
No one gets far into a cancer diagnosis before encountering the reality of pain. I know you long for the relief for the pain of your cancer diagnosis.
Pain from the disease, pain from the surgery, pain from meds, pain from the myriad of poking and prodding our bodies are confronted with.
If you are in pain today I want to say I am sorry, my heart goes out to you because I’ve been there. That’s why we’re getting personal today.
My hope is that sharing my personal experience and what I’ve learned will in some way be soothing medicine for your soul.
I really want that for you because it sometimes seems like the pain of cancer never leaves us. I went from the surgery to radiation burns to aches, pains, joint pain and headaches. There was always something.
I wish I could simply save some magic wand and remove all pain.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.
We can’t just snap fingers for it to disappear and there are times it lurks behind everything and drains us physically and emotionally, not to mention spiritually and we wonder if it will ever go away.
Instead, I want to share with you some personal relief to this very personal problem.
God doesn’t take pain away but he does understand. Jesus experienced a lot of pain, even asking if God would take that cup from Him.
No spoiler alerts, but his Father didn’t take it. What he did do was bring relief through relationship
Psalm 34:18 says
‘God is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit’.
He offers a personal solution to a personal problem. Himself…His presence…His comfort…His calming balm.
We talked a little bit about this in last week’s episode. We talked about loneliness in the pain of our cancer diagnosis and journey and how even in the valley of the shadow of death we can fear no evil because he is with us.
Now there is a danger this sounds like spiritual wishful thinking and you’re probably thinking
Surely his spiritual presence can’t relieve my very physical and personal pain.
So let me explain how it works. After my surgery Dr gave me the most helpful bit of advice – stay ahead of pain. What he was saying was don’t not take your pain meds at the allotted time just coz the pain is bearable. Take them while it’s tolerable so it stays that way, before it gets too bad and you can’t catch up.
So I did, always trying to get the meds in before pain got worse. Even setting an alarm for the middle of the night to take them so I didn’t wake up wracked with pain.
I assure you, I learned the hard way.
It helped but, as we all know, it’s not like the pain simply doesn’t exist anymore. It’s still a struggle.
But what if my doctors advice wasn’t just medical and physical. What if there’s a spiritual truth to it as well? What if Jesus wants to enable us to stay ahead of the pain, spiritually through prayer?
Skeptical? Then listen in.
Or listen on your favorite podcast platform.
If you haven’t already, download your TRUST prayer book mark HERE so you can pray along with me and pray with more confidence and less doubt in the week ahead.
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