Seven Tips to Stay Positive During a Cancer Battle

Staying positive is one of the greatest challenges of life, especially for cancer patients and caretakers! It certainly was a huge challenge for my wife Terri and I during our Stage 4 melanoma cancer battle which began in 2002. Between the cancer prognosis and side effects of the “cures,” negativity was my default outlook. But God (don’t you love that phrase – “but God”), Who makes streams in the middle of deserts, consistently broke through the fog of my cancer battle to deliver His positivity! Here’s how He did it for me – consider 7 Tips to Stay Positive:

1) Embrace God’s empowering love for you

Romans 8:35 & 37 – Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us!

It’s incredibly easy to slip into the mindset that if God really loves us, He will take away our suffering! Yet, these verses in Romans promise we can actually conquer trials through His love in the midst of suffering. So let’s draw in to Him in crisis; tell Him about our pain; and allow Him to comfort and empower us to overcome. Supernatural difficulties require supernatural solutions!

2) Know God’s good purposes for you

Isaiah 43:19 – For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Since God loves us so much, we can be absolutely assured He’ll never senselessly allow suffering without meaning or purpose! He promises to carve out a path of peace and comfort during any trial – so let’s always seek and walk that path. He also leverages our trials for His and our eternal purposes in our lives and the lives of others.

3) Count your blessings

Psalm 94:19 – When my feet slip; when anxious thoughts multiply, I think on your comforts.

Anxiety is a slippery slope; one anxious thought compounds another. So how to halt the slide? By counting His blessings, or as the Psalmist calls them, His “comforts!” I have noticed really depressed folks focus on a long list of challenges and disappointments. I’m not judging them, as I have fallen into this trap as well. But to find emotional and mental stability, we can counter with a long list of blessings! This really works – write those blessings down!

4) Share human support

Romans 15:1 – Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.

God uses people to help in our lives, and He also wants to use you in their lives! There are so many ways to get involved! Get prayer for yourself and pray for others fighting cancer in our Stronghold Ministry Healing Prayer Group on Facebook. You might really benefit by joining a monthly cancer support group. If you can’t find one, you may feel called to start one! We give advice on how to start a cancer support group here in another Stronghold Facebook group.

5) Laugh

Proverbs 17:22 – A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Laughter sure does help lighten the load! When we laugh, endorphin hormones, a true gift from God, flood us with feelings of well-being. What or who makes you laugh? Visit that source often, then repeat!

6) Run from self-pity

1 Peter 5:9 – Be firm in your faith and resist him (the devil), because you know that other believers in all the world are going through the same kind of sufferings.

Nothing is more debilitating than self-pity. Be very aware of the feelings and oppression which comes over you when grief and sadness turns to self-pity. If you see yourself as a victim of cancer or anything, you’ll find a constant flow of roadblocks in your life – and you’ll find victory very elusive. Let your mantra be, God is greater than ANY THING, including your pain and hurts!

7) Mood medicine!

No scripture verse on this tip, but certainly God created certain mood-enhancing substances on the earth to be used appropriately. So consider getting some medicinal help, and by doctor’s prescription of course! For the purists among us, I know, you hate taking any type of drug! I felt that way too, but I reasoned if I was going to take drugs that poison and nuke my body and made be feel horrible, why not take something to reverse those effects? Ativan (lorazepam) was a good one for me and many other patients. It’s not too strong or particularly addictive. Talk to your doctor!

Dear Lord, through these tips and by the sheer power of Your Presence, bring positivity and hope to my hurting friends!