There was a man who worked hard and provided for his family because he believed God’s word to be true about men being the head of the household. He was rarely sick and hardly ever missed a day of work and when he did, he complained the entire time. One particular day he wasn’t feeling good and he hadn’t for a while, but he just thought he was catching a cold or something and shrugged it off. But after a week he decided to visit his doctor and after a physical and a few blood tests, his doctor said that he needed more test because he thought that maybe he had prostate cancer. He told him that he would run the tests and have him come back in 2 weeks for the results. The man went home in a state of shock because he just couldn’t believe that he had cancer. He told his wife, who told him to just wait for the results because he didn’t know for sure. But he told her he knew that he had it because he just had a feeling. Now, this once strong provider had sunk into a state of depression. He missed work the next few days, he hardly came out his room, he stopped going outside and interacting with his family and even allowed them to act like he wasn’t around. When his wife would try to make plans for future events, he talked like he wouldn’t be around to see them. He had already counted himself out; he had given himself a death sentence, he was living like he was dead. He didn’t trust God’s word that says “…by his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:4).” But when he returned to the doctor weeks later, he got the news he wasn’t expecting; there was no cancer just a cyst that could easily be removed. Just like that, God’s word had proven true, now the man can live but he can’t get back the time that he missed out on when he lived like he was dead.
Isn’t it something how we can speak things into existence when nothing is there? Man says cancer and all you see is a death sentence, when you should be saying “I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD (Psalm 118:17).” Man says there is a family history of breast cancer so you automatically tell yourself you’ll get it and because grandma died when she was young, you start believing this is your fate. You never stopped to think about the changes in medicine and the fact that you haven’t been diagnosed yet! But you start still living like you won’t live long anyway. When you start getting close to the age grandma died, you start planning your own funeral. You stop enjoying life and your family and you stop hanging out with friends and you start living like you’re dead. Chile, stop it! In Genesis 6:30 the word says “Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”” If God has promised us years beyond measure why are we so quick to give them up?
Man says you have 2 weeks to live and we go home and prepare to die. Man says 2 months and we give up on everything. We stop everything! We lay in our beds and wait for death to come and get us when God says; I’m not ready for you yet. Even if you do have 2 weeks or months to live, shouldn’t you be out enjoying them instead of being closed up in a room with no family and friends? I’ve always heard, live like there is no tomorrow. I’ve also read in Matthew 24:36 “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” But we are so busy planning for future events that we allow the present to slowly slip away. What sense is it for you to have money in a retirement plan and then work yourself sick and can’t enjoy it anyway? Man says put money aside for a rainy day but what happens to that money when you don’t make it to see that rainy day? You’re so busy planning for tomorrow but yet struggling today. Now, I am not saying don’t save because stuff happens and you need something to get you by but what I am saying is live!
Yea, you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, lupus and etc.; there is a history of heart disease, stroke, kidney & liver problems in the family but YOU are still alive! Yea, you may have to take chemotherapy, dialysis and medicine everyday but YOU are alive today! Yea, momma may have died from a disease that took over her body, but you haven’t stopped to realize that it was already in stage 4 before she was diagnosed, so why are you claiming the same? You going off the fact that daddy died young because of liver disease so you start thinking the same problems will affect you. But did you stop to think that daddy was an alcoholic that made the matter worse? Stop walking around inviting death into your home. You’re constantly speaking stuff on your life and if you keep asking, God will surely provide. “Lord, I know I’m going to die just like momma did.” Yes, you will die, everybody will, but don’t rush it.
Stop stressing over stuff that you can’t change because stress will kill you and the stuff you’re worried about will still remain. You’re stressing because your son is in the streets but it’s not bothering him but you’re losing sleep. You’re stressing and losing your hair because your daughter won’t take care of her body and rarely goes to the doctor but she isn’t concerned. You are worrying yourself into an early grave and for what? When you’re dead and gone the same folk you were worried about will be spending your insurance money, still being in the streets and still not going to the doctor.
When the doctor gives you grim and devastating news, live! When there is a family history of disease and death, live because it doesn’t mean that history will repeat itself. When folk have counted you out, live on because no one knows the destiny that God has planned for your life. Yea, you may be addicted to prescription drugs, alcohol or cocaine, but you aren’t dead. Maybe, just maybe, God is taking you down this path to prepare you for what he has in store for you. When you overcame that addiction that had you bound then, it may just deliver someone who is thinking about doing it now. When you allow folk to take the life from you, they’ve won. When folk say you won’t live to be 20 and you live the lifestyle to prove that you won’t, they win. There have been many people the doctors have counted out but it wasn’t in God’s plan. If you don’t believe me, go and see my granddaddy who man said wouldn’t live 2 months, but it has been almost 3 years. Go visit my aunt who was diagnosed with breast cancer but beat it when her mom didn’t. If you don’t believe me, go visit St. Jude and see all of the children the doctors counted out, who have grown up to be adults.
Just because it happened to somebody else, doesn’t mean it’ll happen to you. Stop living like you’re dead because if you have blood flowing through your veins and your heart is beating, you’re alive. If you put your hand in front of your face and blow and you can feel the breath on your hand, you’re alive. Even the folk in hospitals on ventilators are considered alive. If God gave you a life, live it! Ephesians 5:2 says “Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”
Lakisha, the Author 