by Sandra Hansen
Not too many of us were declared King lately or mustered an army of 180,000 fighting men. But, some days it feels like a battle to get up and get going with life. It’s a fight to get the kids off to school, ourselves off to work, and our daily routine in process. Sometimes it feels like life is just one battle after another. It seems like we just get one issue squared away when something else pops up to take its place. Life can seem like one continuous series of battles.
But, some battles are just not ours to fight.
We may muster our ‘armies’ and charge off without God, thinking we are doing the right thing. But, if we stopped to listen, God would be saying, “Go home . . . for this is my doing.”
I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer in June, 2008. I went through some very nasty chemo and was pronounced in remission on November 2, 2008.
Remission is a funny thing. I see my oncologist once a month to check if the cancer is back with a simple blood test. For the first two years, I have a high likelihood of relapsing. After that the risk drops considerably. In the beginning, I kept asking my doctor about organic food, supplements, and exercise programs. I wanted to do everything that I could to prevent my cancer from returning.
Finally my doctor said to me, “Sandy, there is NOTHING that you can do to prevent a relapse. All that stuff is good, but it will not prevent the cancer from returning, if it chooses to do so.”
Wow. I was stunned. And then I realized that God was saying to me, through this situation- Go home, this is my battle to fight. I wanted to rally the troops and charge off to fight my cancer, but that wasn’t God’s plan for me. Praying and walking with Him in faith each day was. As I write this, I have been in remission for 14 months. By the time you will be reading this, I will have been in remission for 20 months, very close to the two year mark or I will have relapsed. I don’t know what my future holds. But God does. For the battle is His, not mine.
Now, you may not be living with cancer, like I am or dealing with a revolt like Rehoboam. But is there an area of your life that you are trying to ‘fight’ your way through? Take some time today to pray and ask God if you should be fighting this battle or if He is calling you to watch and pray as He works His plan out in your life.
Your fellow traveler,
Sandy