This morning I read a post by someone talking about their mother's battle with breast cancer, it was a beautiful testimony of faith and hope that brought me to tears and reminded me of my beloved aunt who died from cancer four years ago this upcoming March. She was prodigal, a woman who got carried away in the world and bound in the chains of sins, but cancer changed that for her. Faced with death she ran home to the Father that loved her and broke free from her past, casting off the lies of Satan. And thru the Lord and her reborn faith she won her first battle with cancer, the doctors couldn't make sense of it, they had said she had months, but she went into remission praising Jesus the whole way.
My aunt would battle against the disease two more times, and the third time she was called home to glory, her battle was over and God loving welcomed her to Him. Her younger sister was with her that night, she told us that my aunt talked about seeing heaven just before she finally let go of life and took her last breath. This didn't surprise anyone, in the years since my aunt had been first diagnosed with cancer God changed her, and we knew she was truly committed to the Lord. Her life and the changes in it spoke of God's power to heal and restore.
After her death her faith would continue to touch the lives of her sons, sisters, brother, parents, and nieces and nephews when we found her diaries. In it we found that no matter how bad her days were and no matter how much pain she was in, she never blamed God. She never got mad at God. Each page was praises, some venting and frustration, but mostly thankfulness for what was right in her life, like her precious grandchildren. This astounded us. We never heard her blame God, but we had expected to open her diaries and see days where she did, and no one would have thought any less of her, the pain she endured was awful. But that just wasn't how she chose to walk through this, instead she chose faith.
Since her passing she has not only been missed, but the inspiration she left behind in her diaries has more than once caused her boys and the rest of us to pause and question things. A changed life is hard to miss in a person and is proof of God working in them, but a dying woman praising God thru her pain is something that will make you examine your own heart and faith. No matter what was thrown at her, her faith was unshaken, she trusted in Jesus completely, right up until the end. I saw her just days before she passed away, too weak to stand, nothing but skin and bones, to sick to eat, yet still she tried to smile thru the pain, still she prayed and thanked God for little mercies, it's a memory that will never leave me.
Today if your day is tough I ask you to remember my aunt and what I shared here. I ask you to think about a dying woman who praised God the whole way home again, and ask yourself, if she could trust Him from her death bed why can't I trust Him now? If she could look past her suffering and know that God had it all under control why can't I? Be blessed.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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