The daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham has revealed she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Anne Graham Lotz, who is herself a well-known preacher, shared the devastating news in a blog post published this week.
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Graham Lotz, who lost her husband to a tragic drowning in 2015, noted the significance of the date she received the diagnosis.
“The Refiner has just added fuel to the fire in my life. On the afternoon of August 17, 2015, between 3:00 and 3:30, as you may know, I discovered my husband, Danny, unresponsive in our pool,” she wrote. “Two days later he was Home! Three years to the day, on the afternoon of August 17, 2018, at the very same time of day…3:00 to 3:30…I was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I realized the strange “coincidence” of the timing, I came to the chilling conclusion that it was an assignment from the enemy.”
Despite feeling fear and trepidation at the moment of hearing those awful words, Graham Lotz said she then sensed God’s presence with her and felt the Spirit lead her toward a powerful truth.
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“I heard the soft, gentle whisper of the Spirit, reminding me that it was on a Friday, during that very same time…between 3:00 and 3:30 in the afternoon…that God’s Passover Lamb was sacrificed,” Graham Lotz explained. “Jesus died on the very same day of the week, at the very same time of the day, crushing the head of the serpent, forever defeating the devil and death.[2] Praise God! The cross…the blood of God’s Lamb…trumps anything the devil can throw at us or assign to us!”
“So I am left to worship and totally trust our God who is ultimately in control. Of everything,” she declared.
Graham Lotz, 70, then requested prayers as she moves forward with treatment.
“Pray for God to heal me in whichever way He deems would bring Him the most glory,” she asked. “Healing without surgery, with surgery, with surgery and follow-up treatment, or through the greater miracle of the resurrection.”
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She concluded the post with a prayer penned by famed Christian missionary, Amy Carmichael, saying that it expressed her “heart’s desire” for this next season:
“From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings;
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified,
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire,
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God
–Amy Carmichael”
“There is hope for tomorrow,” Lotz bellowed in a stunning message delivered at her father’s funeral. “This is not all there is. The best is yet to come.”
A poignant word at this testing time. Please pray for Graham Lotz and her extended family as they come to terms with this difficult news.