2022 has now passed and for that, I am thankful.
I lived another year with stage 4 melanoma and while not ideal, it's a humbling miracle.
The year 2022 was like most--sweet & salty. I witnessed and received many blessings, yet lost friends due to cancer and even experienced cancer progression myself.
In years past, my resolution has been to just survive. I'm learning, though, that God wants so much more than that for me--for us.
Cancer is not my identity, although the lurking darkness would like me to believe that. Instead, cancer has become a tool for my spiritual and personal growth that I may not have otherwise aspired to reach.
Quite literally, God is taking what the enemy is trying to harm me with and using it for good--for His glory.
This growth has been, and continues to be, excruciatingly beautiful. Despite all I've endured and learned over the last 2.5 years, I'm still stubborn and flawed.
Some days I'm a spiritual gangster and others, I'm a defeated mess.
That fine line between faith and doubt rests upon what I allow to swirl around in my mind--the loudest voice in my head. Do I meditate on God's goodness and promises or the enemy's lies?
This tug-of-war battle is exactly what God warns us about in the Bible. He instructs us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. From there, He does the supernatural.
I admit this is no easy task. It requires daily effort because the enemy is relentless. He knows our potential, so he twists God's truth just enough to hold us under and barely surviving.
Lately, I've been drowning. The enemy's voice has been overpowering and I've frequently allowed it to diminish my strength and knowledge of the truth.
You see, Satan has no real power so he wears us out mentally to the point where we become our own personal enemy. That's why knowledge of God's truth and promises is essential. If we can't recognize a lie, we also cannot dismiss it.
New year resolutions provide a great opportunity to regain control over our thoughts. We can reflect on the last 365 days and see where things went right and wrong so we can adjust accordingly.
While the passing of an entire year isn't required to invoke real change, it's still a great opportunity to take inventory.
In doing so, for 2023 and years to come, I now resolve to do more than just survive the lies.
I resolve to thrive despite them.
May we all learn to take the enemy's lies captive in the natural and allow God to do the super with them.
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