Facing Serious Illness As A Christian

Facing Serious Illness as a Christian

Dr. Kevin Conners, D.PSc., FICT, FAARFM

Navigating the Chaos to Find Your Spiritual Path

We have all experienced a time when we needed support to help us through a challenging experience. Being diagnosed with cancer is no exception.

A first-time cancer diagnosis can be a tremendous shock, and recurrence after remission can bring up feelings and concerns you thought were gone for good. You may wonder, “Why did God let this happen to me, and what do I do now?” The simple fact is that cancer can’t kill you if you are already dead. I know this sounds harsh and insensitive, so let me take a step back and explain what I mean.

As a cancer survivor, I understand firsthand the shock, disbelief, anger, grief, and eventual acceptance that occurs after a life-changing diagnosis. These stages of experience depict the very “human” process of settling into hopelessness when faced with what appears to be an insurmountable obstacle.

Fortunately for us, God does not follow our contrived humanity.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to ask Him for all that we need. We should ask for healing and pray for healthy marriages and Godly children. However, we must protect ourselves from expecting that we can manipulate God to provide what we think we need, even when that thing is life itself. If we keep Him at the center of our experience and have faith in what we cannot see but feel in every cell in our body, then the path will remain clear and provide the comfort needed to carry us through.

A Biblical Approach to a Healing Mindset

There is more than one paradox the Spirit-filled Christian must face. Life is found through death; the Kingdom is experienced through brokenness; power is made manifest through surrender, and strength is discovered when at our weakest—to name a few. Each has its counterfeit, arranged by the enemy, which always weakens the believer.

It’s NOT about a ‘perfect walk’ or sinless life, for this is impossible. God’s definition of spiritual maturity is one who repents more immediately after sinning because they clearly hear the Spirit’s corrective words. The less mature wallow longer in a disobedient state, either ignoring or not recognizing the prodding of God’s Spirit to bring about repentance. But if they slip for days, weeks, or months into a slumber of the enemy’s making, they get dragged slowly, quietly, farther from their first love, more blinded from the Truth, and deaf to God’s pleadings. We must awaken from this slumber to hear His words and start the pilgrimage back to Truth.

Christ calls us to the cross, and the cross does one thing– it kills. But that does not mean that everything must end. The world lulls us into believing a lie that we deserve everything our heart desires. By contrast, this experience is renewing and a cause for rejoicing. Through this death, we will find life everlasting enrobed in His love.

Honoring the Lord While Facing Illness

We must mature to understand that our spiritual walk has nothing to do with happiness or happenstance – neither peace nor conflict in which we find ourselves, not the wins or the losses, sickness or health, the riches nor poverty. God’s plan is far greater than any temporal experience, good or bad! Life undulates; God is steadfast. Life has happiness; God gives joy independent of circumstance. Life has sorrows; God gives peace through them because His plan is eternal and often hidden past a veil. It is neither the highs nor lows that define the man but the fruit born, in season and out, from roots embedded in Christ. Our relationship with Him needs to be ‘immediate’–through no one, not your pastor, your Bible teacher, your parents, your friends–your connection with Him must be direct and strengthened through cords of spiritual discipline.

No, this Christian walk is so much longer than now, things, happiness, and healing; it is even bigger than heaven and hell.

WHAT IS VISIBLE IS FAR LESS IMPORTANT THAN WHAT IS INVISIBLE.

Embracing spiritual maturity honors Our Heavenly Father and prepares us for our path wherever it leads. Through this surrender, we can move away from “already being dead” to truly living, in His service, and ready for any challenges our earthly existence offers.

Tools for Spiritual Healing

Access Dr. Conners’ devotional book, Cancer Can’t KillYouIfYou’reAlreadyDead, to refer to or hand out to those who may need encouragement after a difficult diagnosis.

As an unashamed Christian, Dr. Conners has been clear that all glory goes to God for most of his life. When members of Conners Clinic praise him for helping them with their health, he quickly says, “I’m not the healer!” As an extensive writer on health and natural living, one aspect of every individual that must be addressed when discussing healing is the spiritual self. His hope is that these books draw you closer to Christ and help bring true, complete healing.