Don't waste your illness.

I am writing this on the eve of my prostate surgery. I believe in the divine power of healing, both through miracles and through medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not a wasted disease when God heals it. God gets the glory, and that is what cancer is for. So if you do not pray for healing, you may be wasting your illness. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. There are many other ways to waste your illness, including cancer. I pray for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.

1. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you do not believe that God intended it for you

It cannot be said that God merely uses our disease (cancer) but does not design it. What God permits, He permits for a reason. And that reason is part of His design. If God foresees the molecular changes that lead to cancer, He can stop them or leave them. If He does not stop them, He has a purpose. Since He is infinitely wise, it is fair to call that purpose a design. Satan is real and brings much pleasure and suffering. But he is not final. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job ultimately believes that it is God (Job 2:10)—and the inspired writer agrees: «They expressed their sympathy to him and comforted him over all the calamity that the Lord had brought upon him» (Job 42:11). If you do not believe that God intended your cancer for you, you will waste it.

2. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you consider it a curse, not a gift.

«"God's purpose in our illness is to knock the supports out from under our hearts so that we will rely completely on Him.".

«There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus [who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit]» (Rom. 8:1). «Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree» (Gal. 3:13). «For there is no curse against Jacob, nor divination against Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What God hath wrought» (Num. 23:23). «For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; He withholds no good from those whose ways are blameless» (Ps. 84:12).

3. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you seek comfort in your chances rather than in God

God's purpose in your illness is not to teach you a rational, human way of counting odds. The world takes comfort in its odds. Not Christians. Some count their chariots (survival rates), and some count their horses (side effects of treatment). "Some boast in chariots, and some in horses; but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God" (Ps. 20:7).

God’s purpose is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:9: «But we had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.» God’s purpose in our illness (among a thousand other good things) is to knock the shackles out of our hearts so that we will rely completely on Him.

4. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you refuse to think about death

We will all die if Jesus does not delay His coming. Not thinking about what it will be like to leave this life and meet God is foolish. Ecclesiastes 7:2 says: «It is better to go to the place of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for the end of all men is where the weeping will come, and the living should take it to heart.» How can you take it to heart if you do not think about it? Psalm 90:12 says: «Teach us to count our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.» Counting our days means thinking about how many days we have left and how they will end. What a waste it would be if we did not think about death.

5. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you believe that «victory» over it means staying alive rather than valuing Christ

«"Cancer doesn't win if you die. It wins if you don't value Christ.".

Satan's design and God's design in your sickness do not coincide. Satan's design is to destroy your love for Christ. God's design is to deepen your love for Christ. Sickness does not win if you die. It wins if you do not value Christ. God's design is to wean you from the world's breasts and to fill you with the sufficiency of Christ. This should help you to say and feel, "I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, that I may gain Christ." And therefore to know that "to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 3:8; 1:21).

6. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you spend too much time reading about the illness (cancer) and not enough time reading about God.

Make no mistake, knowing about illness (cancer) is not wrong. Ignorance is not a virtue. But the desire to know more and more and the lack of desire to know God more and more deeply are symptoms of unbelief. Illness is designed to awaken us to the reality of God. It is designed to give us the sense and force of the command: «Now know, let us press on to know the Lord» (Hosea 6:3). It is designed to move us to the truth stated in Daniel 11:32: «The people who know their God will be strong and do good.» It is designed to make us immovable, indestructible oaks: «Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does will prosper» (Ps. 1:2–3). What a waste it is if we read day and night about our illness, and not about God.

7. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you let it drive you into loneliness instead of deepening your relationships with explicit love.

When Epaphroditus brought Paul the gifts sent by the Philippian church, he became sick and almost died. Paul tells the Philippians: «He was laboring for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he had fallen ill» (Phil. 2:26). What an amazing response! It does not say that they were distressed because he was sick, but that he was distressed because they had heard that he had fallen ill. That is the kind of heart God seeks to create through sickness: a heart of deep love, concern for others. Don’t waste your sickness by keeping it to yourself.

8. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you grieve like those who have no hope

Paul uses this phrase when speaking of those whose loved ones have died: «We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep in death, so that you may not grieve just as others do who have no hope» (1 Thess. 4:13). Grief over death is a reality. Even for a believer who has died, there are temporary losses: the loss of the body, the loss of loved ones here, the loss of earthly ministry. But this grief is different—it is imbued with hope. «We are bold and willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord» (2 Cor. 5:8). Do not waste your illness grieving like those who do not have this hope.

9. You will waste your disease (cancer) if you treat sin as lightly as before

Are your tempting sins as attractive as before you got sick? If so, you are wasting your illness. Illness is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness—all these qualities are the enemies your illness is designed to attack. Don’t think only of fighting the illness. Think also of fighting sin while you are sick. All these things are worse enemies than the illness (cancer). Don’t waste the power of the illness on suppressing these enemies. Let the presence of eternity make the sins of earthly life as meaningless as they really are. «For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit himself?» (Luke 9:25).

10. You will waste your illness (cancer) if you do not use it as a means of witnessing to the truth and glory of Christ.

Christians are never anywhere without a divine plan. There are reasons why we are where we are. Remember what Jesus said about painful, unpredictable circumstances: «But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake; and this will happen to you as a testimony» (Luke 21:12–13).

«"If you don't believe that God intended your illness for you, you will waste it.".

So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity for witnessing. Christ is infinitely worth. Here is a great opportunity to show that He is worth more than life. Don't waste your illness.

Remember, you are not alone. You will have the help you need. «And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus» (Philippians 4:19).