Sandy's Journey of Faith: Be Thankful

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Be Thankful

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Giving thanks in all circumstances is a hard one for me. Sometimes I wonder why God allows certain circumstances and what good could possibly come out of them. It is in those times that I need to sit back and trust that God is in control of everything and His ways are not my ways. Bad things happen because there is an enemy who wants to pull us down. God can turn those negatives into positives if we turn to Him and seek His will. I feel that in all the trials of my life, I can look back and see God's mercy and grace, and I usually see that God's way was better than my own.

This past Sunday, Betsy Straeter spoke about giving thanks. She recounted the story of Corrie Ten Boon and her sister being in a barrack in a concentration camp that was infested with lice and fleas. Corrie could not give thanks, but her sister Betsie insisted that they find a way to thank God for their circumstance. They had Bible studies in the barracks and where amazed at how they never got interrupted by guards. Later, Corrie came to understand that the guards did not want to come in the barracks because of the fleas. Those horrible fleas protected them.

It has almost been two years since I found out I have cancer. I have come to a place where I can give thanks for my situation even though it can be scary at times. I am thankful for the people cancer has brought into my life. I am thankful for those times I could do nothing but rely on God because I was in too much pain to take care of anything myself. I am thankful for a husband who is an amazing partner to have on this journey. I am thankful that it is me that has cancer and not one of my kids. I am thankful for God's word and his promises. I am thankful that God keeps blessing this Blog.

Here is a challenge!!!!
This month, Let's try to list five things each morning that we are thankful for. Try to be thankful for all things good, bad and ugly. Try to be thankful for all situations God places you in. Ask God what you can learn, and thank Him for his promise of never leaving or forsaking those who call on Him. Thank God for his love and mercy, and that nothing can separate us from that love. Thank God for the "fleas" in your life that may be teaching or protecting you from further heart ache. Keep a list of what you are thankful for and why. I think we will all be amazed at the end of the month with the blessings we have.

Rejoice in the Lord Always!
Sandy

The Salvation Prayer

This prayer is an example of what to say to Jesus when you want Him to come into your heart. It is a humble statement between you and God that recognizes that we all fall short of being good enough to face God on our own. Jesus had to pay the price for our sins so we could come before God pure and blameless. You don't need to clean up your life before you pray this prayer. Jesus will come in and help you draw close to him.

Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.

My Journey (Revised 07/12/13)

Romans 8:28 says that in everything, God works for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

This is often a tough verse to swallow. We see our life falling down around us due to finances, broken relationships, or disease, and it becomes difficult to trust that God can work through these trials if we look for His purpose and trust in Him. There are times when it seems impossible for God to work anything for the good because things are so bad.

I was diagnosed with cancer in April 2007 when I had a stiff neck that would not go away. For four months I tried chiropractic care, massages, and stretching to try and loosen the knots that were all over my neck and down into my upper back. The stiff neck made sense to me because we had moved into a new house and I thought I had strained something.

Four months later I could not stand the pain any longer. I went back to my trusted chiropractor and he sent me to have an MRI. It was through that test that he saw something horribly wrong. My C5 vertebrae was gone, and my neck had collapsed! He called my husband and I into his office and told us the news that would change our life. There was some type of disease in my neck. He suspected that it was metastatic breast cancer.

We contacted City of Hope, and they asked me to get a bone scan. My life plunged further into darkness when the test came back showing lesions all over my bones. Several tests later, a small tumor in my breast was found, and I was officially diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. It is incurable.

My family decended into the valley of the shadow of death. It was a dark and painful time, and all of our lives changed forever. However, it was during that time God revealed His purpose for me. I have cherished my relationship with God all of my life. Because I had a spiritual foundation, when the bottom of my world dropped out from under me, I had a loving God to catch me. In many ways I feel that God had prepared me for this battle my entire life.

We shared the news with more family and friends, and the prayer support was amazing. I visualized the "switchboard in heaven" completely lit up with prayers for me. We tried to keep up the communication with everyone via e-mail, but a better solution came to mind.

On the eve of my surgery to repair my neck at City of Hope, I started a Blog, and called it "Sandy's Journey of Faith." Little did I know that this was the gift and ministry that God had been training me for. It started with us giving updates, and then turned into a forum in which I could share my faith as I walked hand in hand with Jesus through this trial. Jon would sometimes be a guest writer, and we were getting lots of interest and encouragement from everyone to keep it up.

I am still in awe that I can continue to write and share the ups and downs of living with cancer in such a powerful way. God uses our technology for His glory. I am just the typist, but God is the true writer of this Blog. There are often times when I wake up in the middle of the night (when it is the most quiet) and just start writing something that God has placed on my heart. It is a humbling journey to know that the God of this Universe cares about my Blog, and can use it.

I am forever thankful for the brilliant, and compassionate doctors at City of Hope. I trust them to do what is necessary to give me a good quality of life. My cancer journey has been a roller coaster of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, and on going treatments. I believe that God brings doctors into our lives to help us, but He is the ultimate physician, and I have seen miraculous healing as well.

My journey still involves metastasized cancer. God has His reasons for not healing me, and I have learned that His road for me is better that mine. Through it all, I have grown personally closer to Jesus, and I have seen miracles in the lives of people around me that are better gifts that the healing of cancer. When a loved one comes to know this amazing and loving God that I worship, my cancer journey is worth it.

There are hundreds of promises that God has made to those He calls His own. My favorite promise is from Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave you or forsake you." I can say, without hesitation, that God has never left my side throughout this journey of mine. Sometimes the answers have come slower than I would have liked, and often times not in the way I would have envisioned, but God's love is constant and unconditional.

God has taken a broken vessel (me), and has shown His light through the cracks. I am humbled and thankful that you took time to read this Blog. I pray that it has inspired you to seek out a relationship with the one who went to the cross so that you can be free. Jesus makes promises, and He never breaks them.

-Sandy Boulware

Prayer for Salvation

There is not specific prayer that needs to be prayed word for word. It is just a humble statement between you and Jesus as you recognize all that He did because of His love for you. You don't need to clean up your life before saying this prayer. Jesus will help you find a way, through faith, to draw closer to Him.

Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.