Let's pray for each other

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

            “It’s malignant.”  My heart jumped when my wife Susan said it after her doctor’s appointment last month.  We’d been keeping an eye on the lump in her breast for years, and up till now there had been no changes.  Now, suddenly it was growing and had even broken through the skin.  Knowing what we knew, we should have been ready to hear those words.  Still, it shocked us...cancer had entered our lives.

            As people of faith, we believe – no, we know – that God is good all the time.  But faith does not shield us from struggle.  God’s blessings do not include immunity to adversity or an inability to feel pain.  Yet in these last few weeks, God has sent us good doctors and we can see Him working through them on our behalf.  They are optimistic that we will beat this.  We are optimistic that God will. 

            I have prayed with many cancer patients throughout my years as a pastor, in living rooms and hospital rooms, at bedsides and at the altar…but it’s an altogether different feeling when it’s my living room, and when the eyes I’m looking into are my wife’s.  I know I can’t fix this, but I can stand beside her.  I can’t stop the pain, but I can offer comfort.  I can’t heal her, but I can pray to the One who can. 

She has had her first treatment and so far has faced each appointment and test with calm confidence.  Family, friends and church have gathered around us with prayer and encouragement, and we’d love to have your prayers as well.  As 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you,” I pray that you can do that too through whatever struggles you are facing.  Please feel free to share your prayer concerns with us…call our church office or come by Fridays between 11:30am and 1:30pm for Drive-Through Prayer.  God loves us and wants us all to be whole, therefore, let’s “pray for one another, so that we may be healed” (James 5:17).

Peace,

Pastor Scott