by Max Hammonds
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
No medical condition causes fear quite like the diagnosis of cancer. Cancer is quite common, actually. Everyone has cancer – an excessively overactive, even deadly growth of normal body tissue which threatens to derail the usual growth processes, consume all energy, and eventually destroy the human. But the white cells of the immune system – the soldier cells – are on constant guard against the invasion of outside foreign material, like viruses, bacteria, and fungi and against the multiplication of cancer cells internally. Every day the white cells recognize these abnormal growths as “not me” and destroys them – most of the time.
When the immune system is weakened – by lack of sleep, by chronic overwork, by serious or longstanding illness or when the system no longer functions optimally in older age, the white cells do not function as they should – and cancer is not detected and not destroyed as a result.
One of the most difficult of medical specialties is oncology. For physicians in this specialty, treatment therapies are not hard to understand or prescribe. But the need to be constantly upbeat with patients who are not getting better and the difficulty in explaining to patients that they are going to get a few more months of life, not a few more years, is as hard on the physician as it is on the patients.
Now comes the story of two oncologists comparing notes on the treatment of their cancer patients. Both used the same drugs, the same dosages, and the same criteria for treatment. But one oncologist’s success rate was 22%. And the other oncologist’s success rate was 74%.
Both used what was then the standard combination of drugs: Etoposide, Platinol, Oncovin, and Hydroxyurea, commonly referred to as E.P.O.H. The oncologist with the 22% success rate told his patients he was giving them EPOH. But the oncologist with the 74% success rate told his patients he was giving them HOPE. He emphasized how this combination of medicines gave them a good chance for survival. Because having HOPE has an incredible effect on how well a patient recovers. Not having HOPE had an equal effect on a patient – for the worst.
But even more deadly is another kind of cancer – the Cancer of Sin. From the Fall of our
earliest forebearers – Adam and Eve, we are all susceptible to and very quickly develop this deadly condition. We all have our “soldiers” guarding us against this deadly malady: God’s Holy Word, our angels who guard and protect us every day, and our parents and elders who are aware of this condition and who warn us of the dangers of this deadly situation and inform us of the available cure.
Unfortunately, our soul’s “soldiers” can also be made weaker and ineffective by sleeping through their warnings, by overworking to gain the approval of the world, and by repeated ignoring their presence in our lives.
Fortunately, we also have HOPE. We have God the Word (John 1:1) who set aside His god-ness (Phil 2:6, 7), took on human flesh (John 1:14) as Jesus the Christ, and became our “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24). We also have God the Holy Spirit, promised to us by Jesus (John 14:16, 17). Through His power (Eph. 3:16), we are convinced of our need for a Savior (John 16:8), empowered to grow in love (Eph. 4:11-16), and prepared to partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3, 4). And finally, we have God the Father who loved us and sent His Son to die for us (1 John 4:10), and Who sent the Holy Spirit to mentor us (John 14:16, 17), transform us (Rom. 12:2), and grow our characters to be like Him (1 John 4:16, 17).
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are our Heavenly Operators to Procure Eternity (HOPE). Therefore, we are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:13, 14).
Because having HOPE has an incredible effect on how soon and how well we recover from the pain and suffering of Sin. And not having HOPE has an equal and opposite effect on us – for the worst. Ask fervently, seek earnestly, knock urgently on the door of the HOPE Trio of Heaven. They are eagerly waiting to answer your request – for HOPE.