What can we learn from the journeys and battles of those who have traveled this road? Part V

This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  During this month our fellowship recognizes a very special group of people on October 27th...our Cancer Survivors.  We continue our series on:

What can we learn from the journeys and battles of those who have traveled this road?

1.     Crisis Creates Confusion – A diagnosis can be a disturbing time.

2.     Caution Causes Carefulness – Don’t get ahead of God!

3. Commitment Calls for Courage – Facing the challenges and fears of life in faith is courageous.
4. Conquering May Not Mean Cure – Being a conqueror is an attitude, not a position.
5. Compassionate Caregivers Share the Burden – Caring compassion is God’s touch through the hand of another.
6. Christ is our Source for Comfort, Healing, Strength and Hope

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:3-5

Of all the lessons we can learn from the cancer survivor, this is the one we need the most.  Where do you find hope when all seems so dark?  When the scans come back spotted, when the tumor has grown, when the prognosis is dim...where is the hope?  The testimony from so many who have walked those very paths is that their hope is not in a place but a person...Jesus Christ! 

Hope: To desire with expectation of obtainment; to expect with confidence

Hope is the interpretive lens that brings determination in the midst of despair, courage in the midst of crisis and power in the midst of peril.  Hope has an innate sense of a coming blessing that is slowly working itself out and defining itself with purpose. Real hope has a REASON to believe.  Real hope is not THAT you believe or WHAT you believe; it is in WHOM you believe.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3 

Listen to those who daily fight life-threatening battles; those who have heard the rattle of death.  The resurrected Christ is the source of healing, strength, comfort and, therefore, hope.  The person of the Holy Spirit within them is their assurance of His very presence. 

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest in His unchanging grace...
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. 
On Christ the solid rock I stand!  All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

In the midst of your life battle, learn today from those who are our heroes of faith!  There is no need for despair when Jesus is there!  From the beginning of the crisis to the final victory, Jesus is taking care of you!

Scripture to Claim:

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 8:35-39)