Another one of our friends has been diagnosed with cancer, and only given a short  while to live . We feel so much for his wife and family….here is a man who is living for the Lord and witnessing for Him, and now the Lord is saying, “Come home, My son, I want  you to be with Me now!”

   I remember another well known Christian speaker who also had the same diagnosis and he felt that his work for the Lord was being cut short. He wept and asked for prayer that he might be spared to continue this, not seeming to realise that the work he was doing was actually God’s work, more than his work!

   “As for God, His way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:31)….this thought kept running around in my head ever since hearing about our friend and his prognosis. A godly man, who was endeavouring to serve God all his days, to be struck down like this! We do not understand the ways of God. We are told that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts  (Isaiah 55:8-9).     We know that we are told to pray earnestly and in company of others seeking the same thing, but we have to remember that God is Sovereign…each one of us belong to Him and He has control over us….we cannot demand things of Him, even when our wishes seem to line up with Scripture. Our times are in His hands…everything we have has come from Him, and we are to hold them lightly, not grasping them and saying, “They are mine!” We have to be thankful for the good things we have and have had in the past, and be ready to yield them up to the One who gave them to us.

   It is so hard to know what to say to the family concerned that will be a comfort to them. They know all the Scriptures, they have faith that God can and does heal at times, but there are many godly people who have had to watch their loved ones slip away leaving them bereft… they have only God to turn to then and He will be more precious to them than ever.

   What more can be said? We can only say in our prayers the words of our Lord Jesus….”Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as You will !”  (Matthew 26:39)