“Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well.”
— James 5:14-15
On November 9 of this year, I was privileged to speak at a Cancer Education Symposium sponsored by Mayo Health Systems. Following presentations by Mayo doctors of complementary medicine and oncology and a professor of cellular dynamics, it was my turn to speak to cancer patients and their loved ones on Pray for the Cure, and the role of faith and healing in cancer treatment. This post and the posts that follow will summarize some of the insights I presented.
Every year, more than one million people in the United States will hear the dreaded words, “you have cancer.” No one believes it could happen to them. Fourteen years ago, it happened to me. Several months of treatment for breast cancer brought me to the very end of myself. But God, in His mercy, surrounded me with the love and care of a Christian community and Jesus Christ won my heart. I came out of this dark bald place eager to share the source of my hope with others facing a cancer diagnosis.
The opportunity came sooner than I expected. A few months after my treatment ended, I attended a Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure event. I looked over a sea of 47,000 people in pink, all touched by breast cancer, and felt this deep stirring in my heart: “Others will race for them; I want you to PRAY for them.” I knew nothing about praying for people, but I knew how it felt when others at my church prayed for me. Immediately, I brought it back to the prayer pastor at our church and she helped me move forward with the vision.
Pray for the Cure
Shortly after, I founded Pray for the Cure, a church-based healing prayer and discipleship ministry specifically designed for those struggling with all types of cancer. Since 2001, thousands of people have come to share their hopes and fears with others facing the same diagnosis, listen to encouraging healing stories from survivors, receive hope through relevant Bible teaching, and experience healing prayer and anointing in a confidential setting. The ministry is open to the community and meets on the third Monday of the month from 7:00-9:00pm in the prayer chapel at Hosanna! Church in Lakeville, Minnesota.
Why this ministry is needed
Cancer continues to be a major health problem. Gather a group of people together and you’ll find every single person knows someone who has been touched by the disease that accounts for one in four deaths in the United States today. In our church of 7000 alone, we have over 200 trained prayer ministers who take turns staffing the prayer chapels during the weekend services. We estimate that over half of the prayer requests we receive and/or circulate daily to our prayer ministers are cancer related.
Cancer is indeed in a league of its own. The diagnosis is both physically and emotionally traumatic. Even though pink is the color symbolizing breast cancer, as a survivor, I’ve often said that cancer is definitely not a “pink” experience. It’s nothing like being diagnosed with an acute illness like pneumonia where a person finishes a 10-day course of antibiotics and the doctor pronounces a cure.
The diagnosis itself is shocking to hear. Cancer is supposed to happen to someone else. It’s especially difficult for those who have no symptoms prior to diagnosis and are suddenly thrust into the world of the sick and doctoring. The intense rigor of cancer treatment involving surgery, chemotherapy drugs, radiation, and close follow up care can take patients and their families on an emotional roller coaster ride that literally consumes their lives. For the 11 million in the United States who survive, the emotional consequences can be more painful that the medical issues. According to a 2004 survivor survey conducted by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, 57% said even though cancer may leave their bodies, it will always be part of their lives. Survivors often live in fear from check up to check up, wondering if they’re well or not and waiting for the other shoe to drop. One of my readers from Seattle captures it well:
“I am a 34 year old mother of two diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. I have completed a bilateral mastectomy and 4 rounds of chemo in December. I have been devastated! The fear of this cancer often takes over. My heart is heavy and confused, but I am trying to be strong and learn what faith and God are all about. I am struggling everyday and tired of being tired! The idea of having another PET or CT scan sends me to my knees. I don’t know how people just sit and wait to see if cancer has taken over or has surprised them in some other spot. I’m not even scheduled to be scanned until September, but I live every day in this “waiting… waiting…waiting.” I feel one step away from EVERYTHING truly being taken away. “
I’ve learned in my ministry that a cancer diagnosis often becomes the spark that ignites a person’s desire to grow spiritually. As they engage in the prolonged battle, something inside them hungers to connect with God. They seek answers to deep spiritual questions about things that they never gave much thought prior to being diagnosed: Why me? What will happen next? Is there really more to this life? Regardless of where they are in their faith, when we pray for people, it makes a huge difference. They connect with Jesus in powerful way, they receive His peace, and they always feel loved.
Surprisingly, a 2007 Dana-Farber/Harvard Medical School study published in the February 10, 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that most people with advanced cancer considered religion important but felt they received little or no spiritual support from their faith communities. The study draws on data from the Coping with Cancer study, a multi-institutional investigation of advanced cancer patients and their caregivers. Of 230 patients surveyed, 88 percent considered religion to be at least somewhat important. But nearly half said their spiritual needs were largely or entirely unmet by the church.
Ministries like Pray for the Cure can meet these spiritual needs by filling a significant void in the patient’s treatment regimen. The church has both an opportunity and a Biblical mandate to share message of hope at a time when people are desperate for hope.
When faith and prayer become a part of a patient’s cancer treatment
This same Dana Farber/Harvard study cited above found that those who did receive spiritual support reported a better quality of life. Another report published October 23 in the same year validated that psychological and social support is a crucial part of treatment for every cancer patient. According to Cancer Care for the Whole Patient, a new report from the Institute of Medicine Committee (IOM) on Psychosocial Services to Cancer Patients/Families in a Community Setting, there is now abundant evidence that psychosocial factors underlie a person’s susceptibility to and recovery from cancer.
According to Dr. Theodore J. Sawchuk, a medical doctor, urologic surgeon, conference speaker, and co-founder of Burning Hearts Ministry in Fargo, North Dakota, cancer patients have better outcomes when they integrate faith and prayer into their treatment. In his endorsement for my third book, Peace for Each Hour, Dr. Sawchuk writes: “Patients need to know that God is a living Father and that He is bigger than their cancer. Putting their ultimate trust in the Great Physician will help them conquer their illness. The scientific literature has numerous studies documenting that cancer patients have better outcomes when they practice faith and prayer.”
What is faith?
If faith is such an important factor in healing, what is it? For me, as a pastor who ministers to the sick and a follower of Jesus, 
faith is expecting the God of the Bible to do what He says. The best Biblical definition is found in Hebrews 12:1: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” From the world’s perspective, a person of faith may sometimes be viewed as being in denial of their circumstances. Some may view their faith as an “add on” to medical treatment, hoping that everything little bit helps, or a little prayer can’t hurt. For many, faith in God is a “last resort” when all our human efforts fail. As a pastor of prayer and healing, I always teach that God is the ultimate Healer. When I minister to those battling cancer, I always guide people to turn to Him first and foremost, because He has many methods at His disposal to heal.
Seven ways God heals
E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) was named the world’s greatest missionary in 1938 by Time Magazine. He advised United States presidents and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He authored at least 28 books, and holds the world record for the number of times preaching. In his book, The Way, Jones outlines the seven ways God heals: 1) through surgeons; 2) through physicians and drugs; 3) through mental suggestion (yes, you can think yourself sick); 4) through climate (some climates are simply more conducive to health, others to disease); 5) through deliverance from underlying fear, loneliness, self-hatred, purposeless, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, anger, guilt, and more); 6) miraculously, through a direct touch from the Holy Spirit; and, 7) through the resurrection (for the Christian, eternity with Jesus is the final cure).
No, I would not call this a comprehensive list. For example, I would add God-given “common sense,” because we continue to learn more about how the right diet, exercise, and other health habits can prevent disease and promote wellness.
Medicine and faith: a strong partnership
As a Christian pastor and a person who has personally benefited from good spiritual care and medical treatment, this 
means that medicine and faith form a strong partnership. God and doctors are both in the healing business. He created the doctors and the medicine. Both the faith and medical communities are co-laboring with God to care for the whole patient: body, soul and spirit. With all due respect to my friends in the medical realm, I would add one caveat. Doctors are limited by human knowledge and wisdom. Medicines are limited by their capacity to work physiologically in the human body. But God’s power is totally unlimited. Jesus offers something no human solution can offer. As a pastor, I can point people to hope, regardless of the outcome. When I pray for the sick and those battling cancer, I want the people I care for to receive the best of Jesus and the best of medicine. Whether someone is healed with or without medical explanation, we give God the credit and praise Him for His grace and goodness.
Why God?
A teacher asked her young students to write letters to God with their questions. Little Jane innocently asks what all of us wonder. Dear God, instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now?
We’ve all asked similar questions and attempted to reconcile the answers in our minds. But what if we pray and they aren’t healed? What if we believe and things don’t work out the way we hope? If God is “in control,” then how could this happen? In our struggle to understand the difficult circumstances we encounter in everyday life, we have formed opinions that have shaped our view of God. In my books and blog posts, I address some of the common misconceptions about God, faith, and healing, the spiritual issues we encounter most when ministering to people through a long and grueling cancer journey. Be sure to stop back for more!
About Mary J. Nelson
Since starting Pray for the Cure, Mary J. Nelson has authored three books that speak God’s message of hope into the hearts of hurting people. Grace for Each Hour (Bethany House 2005) is daily devotional for women traveling through the breast cancer journey. Each reading brings comfort and encouragement into the typical emotions and fears every woman experiences. Hope for Tough Times (Revell 2009) offers compassion and hope to anyone suffering a difficult trial like cancer by helping them break through the barriers that can keep them from discovering God and His goodness in the midst of their pain. Peace for Each Hour (Comfort Publishing 2013) helps survivors of cancer and other threatening illnesses overcome their doubts and fears and face their future victoriously. She is also an Associate Pastor of Prayer and Freedom Ministries at Hosanna!, a church of over 7000 members the Minneapolis-St. Paul area where, in additional to leading Pray for the Cure, she serves as a leader in the Sozo inner healing ministry, the healing room ministry, and an elder and past president of the Vision Board. She continues to write, pastor people in health crisis, and speak to the medical and faith communities about God’s healing power. Learn more at www.maryjnelson.com.
Before I entered the ministry and even before I started my consulting practice, I held a high level management position in a major corporation. The job was incredibly stressful, so much so that I would occasionally suffer panic attacks. I learned later that people having panic attacks experience a type of “fight or flight” response, the same physical symptoms as someone in immediate physical danger. Once this response kicks in, we tend to perceive everything around us as a potential safety threat. When this happened, I would always retreat to my office and read Psalm 91. I was not very Bible literate at the time, but reading this Psalm always took me to a “secret place” with God when I found myself paralyzed with fear. I learned I could go to Him for protection and trade my fear for peace. Regardless of how crazy things got, I could rest in Him and trust Him to keep me safe. As a reminder of God’s protection for me and all who enter my home, these verses are beautifully framed on the wall in my entry way.
“dwelling.” Other Psalmists like those below describe my secret place as “my hiding place,” “shadow of your wings,” “shelter of your wings,” a “fortress,” and “sanctuary:”
David directly refers to being hidden “in the secret place of your presence” and being kept “secretly in a pavilion” (Psalm 31:20, NKJV). Jesus came to make the secret place of God’s presence accessible to everyone who believes. He made it clear when he announced that “the Kingdom of God is near” (Mark 1:15)! The long awaited Messiah had come to break the power of sin and begin God’s reign on earth. He came to bring the Good News of the Kingdom by teaching, preaching, and healing people of every kind of disease and sickness (Mark 4:23). The Kingdom is not just a future place, but a realm of power today. In this secret place, under God’s divine rule and reign, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is freedom, hope, peaceful living, abundant life, and eternal joy.
prepare a place for them (John 14:1-2). Just as He has prepared an eternal place for you in Heaven, He has prepared a special place for you right here on earth. In His presence, you will find protection from harm, rest for your soul, and the courage to face your fears. The next time trouble sends you into a panic, trade all your fears for a supernatural peace that surpasses human understanding. Make the Most High your shelter, and no evil will conquer you. Meet Him in the secret place.
