God’s will is not always easy to accept, and today’s turn of events fits into that difficult category.
My sister Mary had a full body scan to check for any recurrence of pancreatic cancer, and tonight we learned the devastating truth: this vicious disease has returned and is now on her liver and in her lungs.
Doctors don’t recommend additional chemotherapy, since it would have to be so strong that its side effects would be nearly unbearable. Tonight Mary seems at peace with that. She said, “I just plan to make every single day count.”
It’s been a long, tearful day for all the Petersons. Mary admitted that her low point was having to communicate today’s findings to their 7 children and families because… “it’s awful to be the cause of your children’s suffering.”
Yesterday when she was at my house, we talked about today at length. She said, “The verse dominating my thoughts is Isaiah 26:3 – ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace who’s mind is stayed on Thee.’ ”
This is a watertight promise from God, and as she repeatedly claimed it last night, he gave her that peace in the form of a good night’s rest.
Now the Lord has given her a new verse, one that isn’t nearly as easy to own. True to herself and to her Lord, she said, “All of us, including your blog readers, prayed for God’s will, and today he answered our prayers by showing us what that was. I know he didn’t cause my cancer, but he has decided to allow it. Tonight his word to me is ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice,’ so I’m going to try to do that.”
This was said through tears, but it was, indeed, said.
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“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Praying with Mary, Bervin, and their Family:
- Pray for this difficult adjustment period to their sad news
- Pray for the grand- children, that their faith will grow, despite God not answering their prayers for their grandma as they’d hoped
- Pray for God’s peace to flood each heart, right in the middle of this heartbreaking news