Whether or not we recognize it, every morning that we wake up we go through our day believing things and whatever we believe sets the course of actions on what we do with that day. Our daily activities that we perform are engrained in how we live and whether or not we recognize it – we live according to whatever we believe.
We go to bed believing that we are going to wake up tomorrow. We believe it. Which is really quite arrogant of us because no one is promised tomorrow, yet we act like it is a given. We act like it is “owed” to us. It is not. Maybe you snorted when you just read that sentence because you think I am sounding arrogant, but when you really think about it – we DO just go on automatic pilot when we wake up and go about our day without even giving it much thought. Wake up, go the bathroom, brush our teeth, wash up, get dressed, put on a pot of coffee, make breakfast, head out the door. (Or a scenario similar to that). Automatic pilot. Most of what we do has become habitual, but not always what happens to us is expected and sometimes an unexpected wrench occurs in our lives that throws what is habitual right out the door.
Maybe you will stop reading this post right here because you think I’m sounding pessimistic, but what I want us to think about is the fact that we determine what it is that we are going to believe and all around is there is a spiritual war going on and there is more than some of us who need to decide to change our minds and the way we think. We have been taught and conditioned to go against the thought process that God has given us due to the fact that He has so generously created us with a “free will” which was given to us by the love of a God who longs for you to choose Him. And instead, more often than not that “free will” gift becomes detrimental and not used as God intended us to use it and I imagine God wincing at what His creation believes and uses their “free will” to accomplish things and go through situations He never intended us to experience or choose, at our own detriment. In fact, there are examples of this right there in His Word, see Genesis 6:6
“The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
I don’t know about you, but as someone who loves God, it makes ME wince to think that it sometimes grieves God that He made us! If you are a parent, you can imagine the pain that is shown in that sentence. There is nothing that can compare to the pain a parent feels when their child rebels against ALL you’ve raised them to be. When a child you have birthed decides to believe and live according to a lie than the truth you’ve raised them in. It “grieves” your heart. Some of you understand what that “grief” feels like. And in reading that above scripture, you can be encouraged because God knows on a very personal level what it is you are going through, the Bible is FULL of examples that are just as relevant today as the day God inspired men to write it. It IS the Living Word of God. God wants you to draw strength from it. You only have to read what it says and BELIEVE it, because it is true.
I speak from one who truly knows, 11 years ago after “going about my day” with MY plans and MY routine, a wrench was thrown in my life that I did not see coming… I noticed a painless nodule the size of a nickel right where you would place your hand to say the pledge of allegiance, and coming from a medical family I knew that it was something I needed my physician to see, it turned out to be triple negative stage 2 breast cancer. My life became derailed. THIS was NOT in my plans. This was NOT something that I saw coming, nor did I expect. I will tell you that 80% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer come from families with NO history of it. I was now one of those women and I felt derailed. I felt as though I had stepped right into another vortex (I actually have written a post about it, called “The Call”) which you can find in my Ex-Prodigal’s Daughter Blog by clicking on the enclosed link: The Call
I do not know of one cancer survivor who will tell you that they “expected” to go through cancer. But I will say, that when you determine to allow God to be the center of your life, whatever you go through He will be there right there with you, you only have to believe it and allow your think process to revolve around Him. In other words, change your mind and choose your life to be one where you are walking by faith and making Him the very center of your life. And I will add that I was a Christian at the time I went through cancer, I was a backslidden Christian, which thanks to God’s “redirection” and help in yanking me back front and center to Him because of my “choices” and my “thought process.” I will also say this – God did not “give” me cancer, yet He used what I went through to bring my attention to what in life is important, back to Him. I saw no point in “getting angry with God” because of my diagnosis. Sickness, illness and disease are NOT something God EVER wanted us to experience. It was not His portion for us. How do I know this? Because God said to Adam in Genesis 2:16-18:
“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Sickness, illness and disease (as is death) was the result of sin, the results of Adam and Eve’s actions to use their “free-will” gift to go against what God had instructed them. I did not “expect” to get cancer, but what was meant to derail my faith, instead caused my “think process” to change and drew me out of a backslidden state turning my head back to the One where my strength would come from – My Heavenly Father. Thank God for His forgiveness, His mercy and His love.
People would ask me, as I went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, “Are you afraid to die?” And I will say with all honesty, I hadn’t thought about dying, when I was diagnosed it may have been the first fear that fleeted through my mind along with fear for a moment, but even as a backslidden Christian I knew WHO it was my life belonged to – God. I had given my life to Him at the age of 21, totally, whole heartedly given it to Him and I fully believed what the scripture says in Galatians 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives by faith in me.”
I was so busy being concerned with LIVING that I chose not to think about dying. When you go through cancer or I imagine ANY life-threatening disease, your thought process HAS to change. You have to focus on fighting with EVERY ounce of your mind and your body. I was too busy fighting to live to choose to think about dying. I also firmly believed Exodus 23:26 that says:
“The number of my days He will fulfill”
I also fully trusted and found comfort in Philippians 1:21:
“To live is Christ, to die is to gain.”
After months of fighting cancer, God chose to heal me – and YES God IS the same today, as He was yesterday as He will be tomorrow (see Hebrews 13:8)
How you choose to think, determines how you choose to live. It determines how you go about your life. When God IS your life, you freely allow Holy Spirit to help guide you in your “thought process” and you determine to live in Him the life He always intended you to live. It’s not a perfect life because we still live in a fallen world. THIS WORLD WAS NOT THE LIFE GOD INTENDED US TO LIVE. God NEVER intended us to experience sickness, illness, disease and sin. But He loves enough to allow situations we go through to bring us back to turn us back to what is important – if we listen. Back to Him. We CAN live a victorious life in Him if we choose to put Him first and seek His will for our lives. I speak as one who has seen what God can do. He heals. I speak as one who had chosen to make un-wise decisions – THIS prodigal returned to her Father because she realized the error in her thought process and she determined to use her experiences, her “mess” to be used as “messages” so that others hopefully will change the way they think (redirect if you will) their thought process BACK to the One who gave them their mind in the first place – GOD.
God loves us so much, I pray that you will put Him first in ALL you do and JUST see how great it is as you strive to live a life with Him being the center, choosing to trust in Him and living according to the calling He has placed on YOUR life. There is NO greater purpose than that, think about it. Pray about it. Talk to God about it…. I pray you will.
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