Good morning…
Still. Still. Still. It is the day after our Savior’s birth. As dawn breaks again into our darkness, how are we to be guided by God’s inextinguishable Light? This morning, I am drawn back into the pages of my friend Lisa’s book to discern the practical nature of the Light piercing the extreme darkness caused by her cancer.
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Excerpt from Lisa West’s Fear Not! The True Story Of a Cancer Survivor Who Was Healed and Transformed by God
My Christmas card that year included, along with a wedding picture of Ansley and Rafe, the verse from Psalm 46:10 (NIV) that reads, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Underneath that was a message that read: “This past year, we have much to be thankful for. Ansley and Rafe were married, and Lisa was healed of cancer.”
I’ll explain the significance of that verse as it related to my cancer battle, in hopes it might help others with their battles. The word “still” in this verse comes from a Hebrew word meaning to “let go” or to “release.” Through immovable faith, I let go of and released my disease (which I had no control over) to God, who did have control over it. Releasing and giving over to God our illnesses and afflictions opens the door for us to experience the fullness of all God wants for us as His creation, which includes good health. As the Bible also states, “Dear friends, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 1:2, NIV). (104-105)
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It may be difficult for some of us to read of miraculous healing. We are left wondering, “God, where was the Light of Your miraculous power when I needed it most?” It took Lisa many years to write this book about God healing her cancer because she sheepishly wondered, “LORD, what about all of those who are not healed of their afflictions on earth?”
I understand her apprehension. Just in our close-knit community this week, a father in his mid-forties died on Christmas Eve, still others continue to struggle in dark battles with cancer, addiction, mental illness, and many grieving families prayed for good health for their loved one, yet their Christmas table was set with the aching pain of loss. So, let me try to comprehend this mysterious phenomenon. The Light of God has the power to save and to make whole, but our Creator does not always exercise that power? As we read Scripture and pray diligently, we face a hard truth: sometimes the LORD chooses to heal us physically, mentally, or relationally, but sometimes our Almighty God chooses not to heal in the way we had hoped. This inconsistency does not make any sense to our rational brains.
What we all understand is what Lisa understood. We do not have control over death, darkness, and all of the forms of dis-ease destroying the comfort of our selves and our love ones. Yet, still, the God who does have control over all of creation has come to earth to be with us. In death. In darkness. In our dis-ease. God is. God always is. God always is with us.
Powerless, we are reduced to only one task. To “be still,” to “let go,” to “release” our grip, giving over to God our illnesses and afflictions again and again, morning after morning, dark night after dark night. Our stillness, our letting go, our releasing of control somehow opens the door for us to experience the fullness of all God wants for us. …“Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new…” Revelation 21:3b-5a, MSG). Our God, who is making all things new, desires goodness, wholeness, and an expansion of the Light of life. Yet sometimes the forces of this fallen world seem to win individual battles before the Almighty God wins the whole war.
“Now then, stand still (let go, release your control) and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!” (1 Samuel 12:16, NIV).
…Sue…
