Cancer is a frightening diagnosis. I think we all have a fear somewhere inside us, fear of our body turning against us and the pain it could bring–the possibility of life cut short.

Cancer treatment still seems so barbaric. Poison and cut and slash. Invasive tests and medicines with risks of their own. It’s a battle, and the losses are startling. Even the victories are not without cost.

But in any battle, it’s important to remember the limitations of your enemy. It’s important to consider your strengths and your resources and the war itself. Life is more than this one battle.

Cancer has the power to do some things. It can take your hair and make you sick. It can discourage you and bring you low. It can cause your strength to fail and your smile to fade. It can cause pain and fear, sometimes despair.

But it cannot steal your joy. It can’t change who you are or what you believe. It can’t take you places you were not meant to go.

Cancer can make you appreciate each day, each moment. It can magnify the beauty around you. It forces a right perspective–eternal instead of temporal. It erases shallow thoughts and ambitions. It can draw you close to God.

It doesn’t hide the beautiful. It cannot separate you from God’s love.  It cannot remove you from His mercy–not even for one moment. It is never capable of taking you out of His sight or His reach. It does not diminish His sovereignty or His power or His goodness.

Cancer is not random and does not blindly strike. God has determined your days and written your story before the pages of time began. Cancer does not change your story. Cancer cannot cut your life short, not by one day or one hour.

Cancer cannot erase your name from the palm of God’s hand. It cannot rob you of the peace that only He can give. It means nothing in eternity except an opportunity to praise Him and testify of His grace.

Cancer is an enemy, but it does not win the war. Fight the battle with all your might, but trust in the Commander. Have faith in the keeper of your soul.

He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. Psalm 121:3,7

Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28