Renewal | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Renewal | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gary Ritter
02/20/17
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Just looking at Cathy in church as she worshiped, if Amy didn’t know better, she’d never have guessed her friend had Stage 4 cancer. Cathy had been diagnosed with colon cancer two years prior and had chosen then to fight it with traditional treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation. Some of her treatment days and the ones following had been difficult, but come Sunday morning Cathy inevitably looked and sounded as healthy as anybody in the congregation. But she reached a point where the nausea and the doctors’ negative prognosis caused her to say, “No more!”

“What will you do?” Amy asked.

“I believe that God heals, and that He’ll do the miraculous and heal me.”

Cathy’s husband stood by her decision, but it disturbed Amy. She firmly believed in the power of medicine. Certainly God had provided it for mankind so as to demonstrate His mercy. Believing in prayer was fine and good, but this was cancer. Was it really possible He would move on an act of faith in her friend’s life? She hated to admit it, but Amy had her doubts.

Months passed. Amy supported Cathy however she could and watched her decline. It broke her heart.

“Pray harder,” Cathy said, “not only for me, but for your faith to rise.”

Week after week Cathy came to service praising the Lord, yet her significant weight loss proved clearly that the cancer was eating her alive.

Amy pleaded with her. “Please, let the doctors back in. They can help.”

“How can God receive the glory for my healing if doctors are involved? Once I’m well they can puzzle and scratch their heads, and I’ll tell them about the mercy of my Savior.”

The cancer progressed. Cathy brought a special cushion to sit on during the church service. Seldom could she stand for the entire worship set. Sometimes she had to leave early. At her frequent visits to Cathy’s home, Amy witnessed the horrible, relentless pain. She spent a night each week relieving Cathy’s husband of his grueling caretaking chores, and cried at the torment and suffering that went on for hours.

The church prayed and fasted. Many believed that surely God would intervene in the life of this young woman. Amy’s faith continued to falter. On the day Cathy died, Amy walked out furious at God for His faithlessness. How could He do this?

At the funeral, Amy heard whispers that perhaps God would still move and raise Cathy from the dead. After all, there was this one final chance with the casket at the front of the church. Some of the people around her even held their breath in anticipation of this miraculous event. It never happened.

For the next year Amy didn’t attend church. There didn’t seem to be any point. If God wouldn’t heal a previously vibrant forty-year-old woman with all the prayers and petitions lifted up to Him, what else would He do that might be worthwhile? Probably nothing, she concluded.

Not long after that, Amy herself was diagnosed with cancer. She looked ahead and the months to come seemed bleak and foreboding. She’d seen all too well what the end would be.

The supermarket, of all places, proved to be her turning point. She ran into an acquaintance from church whom she hadn’t seen since abandoning her faith. The woman’s simple statement, “God still loves you,” brought an unexpected conviction that she needed God for this upcoming journey. That Sunday she began attending church once again and during worship experienced an overwhelming presence of the Holy Spirit. She knew God was pleased that she’d come again to His house.

At God’s leading, rather than accept the poisons the doctors wanted to fill her with, Amy began a strict regimen of eating natural foods. She came to corporate prayer whenever it was held. Her own prayer life flourished as she read God’s Word and spent many hours daily in His presence. The turnaround in her heart amazed her. Still, at her regular checkups, the doctors told her the cancer was progressing.

Instead of losing faith, Amy’s deepened. In itself it was a miracle, and she gave God the glory and credit. How she’d gone from nothing to a belief that strengthened in the face of a death sentence defied reason.

Her health continued downhill, but Amy held firm. Seeking God, barely able to stand for worship, she felt pressure and heat throughout her body. She raised her hands in praise.

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