Good morning…
Most of us have heard that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the fight became deeply personal for me when I received a text from a friend on October 12th at 7:34 am.
“Thank you for your message this morning, Courage Is Rekindled,” she wrote. “God spoke to me through you in a mighty way! It wasn’t even your message for today, but when I opened my emails, that was the message that God put before me. His timing is perfect. My 36 year old daughter had a double mastectomy yesterday and unfortunately they found cancer in the lymph nodes. I so need God to rekindle my courage today so that when I greet her in an hour, I will have the strength to give her strength and my faith to give her faith. Please pray for me, Sue.”
Since that text we have been in touch most every day and my constant prayers are with this mother-daughter pair. “The cancer has spread to the left breast and 10 of her 29 removed lymph nodes,” she later shared the sobering news. “They told her 50/50 chance it has metastasized elsewhere. She has a PET scan Thursday to find out. Please pray, Sue.”
Since my spiritual mentor, Betty Skinner who is in heaven, was also her spiritual mentor, I texted my friend back, “If Betty was with you right now, what do you think she would say?”
“WWBD???,” she replied. “She would tell me to trust that God made Marleigh and He will keep her and all shall be well. She would tell me to be present to her, to listen to her and to love her. She would tell me to gather just enough manna for today. Thank you, Sue! Our dear friend is standing beside me through this – her words resonate in my heart.”
“God made Marleigh,” I mirrored back the simple wisdom. “He will keep her. All shall be well. Be present to her. Listen to her. Love her. Gather enough manna just for today. Betty is standing beside. Her words resonate. What a beautiful gift of eternal life and love and guidance. I am so grateful to be walking beside you and Betty in Spirit.”
Then yesterday my friend texted: “We’re having a Laying on of Hands healing service for Marleigh tomorrow at 12:30. Would you stop at 12:30 and pray this healing prayer?
Heavenly Father, I thank you for loving Marleigh. I thank you for sending your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the world to save her and to set her free. I trust in your power and grace that sustain and restore her. Loving Father, touch Marleigh now with your healing hands, for I believe that your will is for her to be well in mind, body, soul and spirit. Cover her with the most precious blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. Cast away anything that should not be in her. Root out any unhealthy and abnormal cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild and replenish any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection by the power of Jesus’ precious blood. Let the fire of your healing love pass through her entire body to heal and make new any diseased areas so that her body will function the way you created it to function. Touch also her mind and her emotion, even the deepest recesses of her heart. Saturate Marleigh’s entire being with your presence, love, joy, and peace and draw her ever closer to you every moment of her life. And Father, fill Marleigh with your Holy Spirit and empower her to do your works so that her life will bring glory and honor to your Holy Name. I ask this in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thank you, dear Sue! We’re going to cover her in prayer!”
“Praying for God’s miraculous healing to happen and for all of us to bear witness to the eternal power of our risen Lord,” I responded. “I love that Betty bonded us a few years back for such a time as this.”
“For such a time as this,” she echoed.
How beautiful it is to see the love of a mother pouring out bold prayers for her 36 year old daughter. I will deepen down into this prayer for Marleigh at 12:30 pm today. Wherever you are, if the Spirit moves, please do the same. There is power in our collective prayers, as Jesus explained, “…What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there” (Matthew 18:20, MSG).
…Sue…
