When a diagnosis shatters your world, the question of "why" can feel deafening. We search our lives for reasons, wondering if we did not have enough faith, or if we are somehow being punished. But Christ's words to the r...
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A Grace That Enters When We Are Empty-Handed: Trusting God's Word through life's deepest trials and seasons of waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions: Trusting God's Word through life's deepest trials and seasons of waiting.
A Grace That Enters When We Are Empty-Handed
When a diagnosis shatters your world, the question of "why" can feel deafening. We search our lives for reasons, wondering if we did not have enough faith, or if we are somehow being punished. But Christ's words to the rich young ruler redirect our gaze entirely. He speaks of an impossibility that drives us to absolute surrender:
"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God... With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." — Matthew 19:24, 26
And here is the beautiful, scandalous truth of the Gospel. The point of the camel and the needle's eye isn't to crush you with despair. It is to get you to stop trying to do the impossible. It is a severe mercy designed to make you look away from your own failing efforts and toward the One who can do what we never could. Your goodness was never enough. Your health was never guaranteed. Your plans were never in control. The whole system of earning and deserving is a dead end.
Only when we are stripped of our own resources, when we stand empty-handed before that needle's eye, are we finally ready to receive the grace that has been there all along—a grace that does not demand our strength, but simply invites our surrender. In the midst of cancer, when your earthly strength is gone, remember that His grace is sufficient for thee, and His strength is made perfect in your weakness.
✝ Sister Grace's Pastoral Reflection
Grace and peace be unto thee, beloved in the Lord. Though thou hast given me no transcript of the article itself, yet the very title speaketh plainly: “Why Doth God Allow Cancer? Finding Hope in the Impossible.” Let us therefore weigh this theme according to the oracles of God, as a skilful husbandman judgeth the seed before it entereth the ground.
The question of suffering is ancient, and the church hath been tested by it since the days of Job. A faithful teaching upon this matter must not seek to cage the Almighty within man’s reasoning, nor presume to chart the secret counsel of Jehovah. Rather, it must lift up Christ crucified as the true answer to every unquiet heart. Thy theme commendeth itself when it refuseth cheap consolations and leadeth the afflicted toward the cross, where He bare our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Such a message strengtheth the soul, for it planteth hope not in temporal deliverance alone, but in the resurrection hope that waiteth beyond the shadow of death.
In alignment with the Gospel of Grace, this teaching must ever declare that sickness, though it be of the fall and a token of mortality, setteth not thy condemnation. The blood of Christ speaketh better than the trembling of a mortal frame; for grace reigneth through righteousness unto eternal life. When the pulpit or press proclaimeth that sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed, it walketh faithfully in Paul’s own testimony: “We labouring together with Him exhort you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” Thus, a teaching which findeth hope in the impossible must ground that hope wholly in Christ’s finished work, not in human endurance or doctrinal speculation.
Unto a wounded soul, such doctrine ministereth as balm of Gilead. It teacheth the broken that God’s presence is nearer in the valley than upon the mountaintop, and that even the physician’s hands are under His sovereign hand. Yet let caution attend every pen: if comfort be made to rest upon a promised healing rather than upon Christ Himself, the weary shall stumble when answers come not in the season man desireth. True ministry of grace kisseth the brow without lying, saying, “The Lord preserve thee, and keep thee,” even while He leadeth through the fire.
In conclusion, let this teaching stand or fall by its Christ-exalting fidelity: pointing the dying to the open grave, and lifting the grieving toward the Father’s tender countenance. May the Holy Ghost anoint every word, and may the wounded find in these pages a quiet refuge.
Grace be with thee, and peace from God our Father through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
