Anne Graham Lotz: Why Breast Cancer Isn’t a Punishment From God
Author’s note: Charisma News presents this article and podcast as the first in our Breast Cancer Awareness emphasis on Charisma News. Watch for a new article each week, and check out the “Hope Through Cancer” podcasts and more on the Charisma Podcast Network.
This year, about 268,600 women will receive a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer, along with 62,930 diagnosed with non-invasive breast cancer. And more than 2,000 men will also be diagnosed with the disease.
Sadly, some of those men and women will see this diagnosis as a punishment from God. But that’s simply not true, Anne Graham Lotz tells host Marti Pieper on the “Hope Through Cancer—Breast Cancer Awareness” series on Charisma News.
What does she say to those who face this disease and experience this crushing fear? The first thing the author, speaker and daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham would do, she says, is make sure that person has a right relationship with God. And she says it’s never too late to do that.
“You have to turn to Him and come to Him at the cross and ask Him to forgive you and come into your heart, give you eternal life. And He’ll come into you in the person of the Holy Spirit, which is [my] new book, Jesus in Me, that the Holy Spirit is Jesus in you and in me. …
“And He will take responsibility for you. He won’t blame you because you haven’t come to Him before then. He won’t try to get after you; He will pick you up right where you are, and He will guide you and lead you just like He did me, even if it was just yesterday that you have been born again.”
Lotz offers hope to “somebody out there who hasn’t had a right relationship with the Lord. Or maybe they came to the cross a while ago, but they haven’t been living for Him, and they’ve neglected Him or rebelled against Him, or they’ve been living in sin. … And now they think this is what they deserve.
“Our sin doesn’t deserve cancer. Our sin deserves death, and Jesus took that for us on the cross. So the wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life. So don’t think God is punishing you with your cancer.”
To learn more about how the Holy Spirit ministered to Anne Graham Lotz throughout her cancer journey and can do the same for you, listen to this inspiring podcast! {eoa}
Check out Charisma’s new e-book, Spiritual Strength Through the Valley of Cancer, available here for just $.99.
