Tag Archives: cancer

Healing Prayer (first installment)

I noted how the first thing King Jehoshaphat did was call for a time of fasting and prayer. However, he did not begin his prayer with a cry for help. Instead, he began with an offering of praise. He called to mind God’s attributes, character and mighty acts: “O Lord, God of our fathers,” he prayed, “are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” (vv. 6-7) By beginning with praise, Jehoshaphat reminded his people of how trustworthy God is, by recalling what God has done in the lives of their ancestors. Beginning their prayer with praise would help them to trust that God can and will act just as powerfully in their own day. I have learned over the past months that such praise is essential in prayer for healing. Continue reading

Posted in Healing Prayer | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Light in the Valley of the Shadow of Death (part six)

Those who know me well, know that I thoroughly enjoy being an Anglican priest. Give me a congregation and I’m ready to go to work. So as I sat in the waiting room on that morning of my first appointment, with the verse from Philippians running through my head, I viewed the people around me as a “congregation” whom the Lord had set before me. I then prayed for my fellow patients, asking the Holy Spirit to direct my prayers. I made eye contact with those sitting nearby and smiled, with all the hope that was in me, asking silently for the Lord to mend their bodies and their hearts and bring to them the good news of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ. Continue reading

Posted in Light in the Valley of the Shadow of Death | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Light in the Valley of the Shadow of Death (part five)

So that is why, after having been warned in January by my doctors that my radiation and chemotherapy treatments would be grueling, I prayed to the Lord, “Please don’t let me go through these treatments without learning what you want me to learn from this experience.” How wasteful, it seemed to me, to let suffering go unredeemed, to miss an opportunity to discover something about the Lord and myself in relation to him. Continue reading

Posted in Light in the Valley of the Shadow of Death | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments