EMPOWERING LIVES WITH PURPOSE:
Praise God, Cathie Boggs, for your willingness to share with us your testimony of faith through fear! We are all about God stories here, which help encourage others in Jesus’ name!
Cathie Boggs, Ohio
This was written right before surgery. My Biggest Fear The Soul (Psalm 23:3)
“He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
A few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I wanted to share with you about my ongoing encounter with cancer. I have been astounded by the fact that I am facing my biggest fear, standing before God alone, and I see His hand in everything, right down to the smallest details. He is teaching me to fully trust Him, and I have peace and know that God’s promises are true. Let me explain.”I am facing my biggest fear…”My mother passed away from breast cancer when I was 8 years old, and I prayed from a very young age that I would not get the disease and die. In fact, I spent most of my life fearing cancer and asking God to please spare me of it. Then, within the last few years, both my sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer. This brought back a flood of difficult memories from our painful past.
I had a roller coaster of emotions regarding the difficulties they faced and again asked God to not allow me to get this disease. So now here I am at a crossroads, facing the biggest dread and fear of my life, living every day in anticipation of what God is going to do in and through me and what He is already doing.
After my biopsies and waiting for the results, my boys, then 11 and 9, were a huge encouragement to me. My youngest son, Jude, gave me his New Testament, where he had highlighted the 23rd Psalm and a note that read, “Don’t worry mummy, trust in God and the bible. I love you.
Love Jude. Psalm 23”.
On receiving this note during a time of doubts and fears of the unknown, I read it over and over again. I even carried it with me to the hospital when I had appointments. Jude had no idea how this would sustain me through this trial. I was so blessed by this, and still am. I love the 23rd Psalm, and after reading it many times, I realize how much this Psalm means to me, especially verse 3: “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
These excerpts are taken from an article by Billy Graham: Your soul is that part of you that has judgment. It makes decisions—moral decisions—what is good and what is bad. Your soul also involves your will. Your will chooses or rejects things that are brought before it. Your soul is that part of you that has emotion, like love and fear. It has memory—the mental capacity for storing up knowledge of ideas and events.
There is something down inside us that is beyond science to know. The Bible calls it soul or spirit. The value of your soul is measured by the devil’s interest in it. Jesus said the devil is the prince of this world. He is the god of this age. The devil is greatly at work in our world, and he is after your soul. The value of your soul is measured by the severity of its loss. It is terrible when a person loses his health, his money, his friends, or, worse still, his character. But what about the loss of a soul?
Christ demands more than just church-going, more than just baptism, more than just being good. He demands your total surrender—the surrender of your mind, your heart, your body, every part of you—to the Lordship of Christ.
I share this with you because even though I have been saved for 41 years, I have lived with fear of something completely out of my control and have allowed this fear to control my will, mental state, and emotions. “I have lived with fear of something completely out of my control…”I knew what it meant as a believer to surrender, but actually surrendering is the hardest part of the Christian’s walk. I had not completely surrendered my mind, heart, body, and every part to the Lordship of Christ, therefore only giving God the areas of me that I wanted Him to have, living in disobedience to His will for my life. The one part of my life that I was reluctant to hand over to God (fear) has ultimately changed my life forever.
I have now surrendered my will to control this part of my life and have come under the submission of my Creator. I believe God sees our soul as the most valuable thing in the world. We can’t give Him part of us; He wants all of us. For many years I have wanted to fully hand over everything to God, but I have kept one small part for myself – control of fear.
I have learned that when we can put this at the foot of the cross and say, “Jesus, you have paid for this; there is nothing I need to hold on to.” Only then can there be complete freedom, peace, and security. When I sit back and reflect on these things, I am ashamed because I do love God with all my heart and have known for all these years that living in fear is sinful, and yet it gripped me, and I was unable to surrender it for the longest time, until now. I have never wanted to be out of the Lord’s will for my life. I know that God is sovereign; He is all-powerful, and His promises are true.
Matthew 22:37 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
While I have a ways to go, with surgery scheduled and a long recovery after that, I am confident that God goes before me. I have nothing to fear, and I have perfect peace in His purposes for my life. I believe there is a lot of healing taking place in my life, for which I am truly grateful. I see God’s grace and mercy in every aspect, and I am blessed by each one of you, my family, friends, and acquaintances that have sent me wonderful, encouraging messages, emails, and cards. I pray that my transparency will encourage your heart and that this “season” you are in will allow you to surrender those areas of your life that would keep you from having a full, peace-filled, and enriched life that can only come from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
All praise and glory to Him. Love, Cathie.
Dear Ladies,
Cathie’s sister has passed.
Please pray for all of our sisters in Women World Leaders who battle this disease on-going, for Cathie, of course, and also her family.
*Cathie is another puzzle piece in our ministry; she is used by God for an intricate part of Voice of Truth magazine coming together.