In times of suffering, people naturally look for love and hope, things to hold onto when everything else is slipping away. Friends and family may surround you. Doctors may care for you. Encouraging words might come your way.

But sometimes, even surrounded by others, a deeper ache remains. A feeling that there’s still something missing. You may sense that what you’re receiving, as kind as it is, isn’t enough and feels like candlelight in a dark room.

And maybe, in a quiet moment, you’ve wondered: Is there more than this? Is there a greater love, a deeper hope, something more I was made for?

Yes. There is.

Candlelight vs. sunlight

We were all created to experience love. Not just human love, but God’s love. The kind that doesn’t fade in crisis. The kind that holds us in weakness. The kind that speaks peace even in the face of death.

But here’s the hard truth: apart from a relationship with God, we live in separation from the very source of that love and hope. Like candles in a dark room, we catch glimpses, a moment of kindness, a family member’s hug, a loving spouse. But those are only reflections of a deeper, truer love that we were made to live in, like sunlight flooding a room.

There is a reason we are blocked from experiencing this love, as these words explain:

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:2).”

Sin is what separates us from God’s love. 

This isn’t simply about tallying “good” vs. “bad” deeds. It’s about a broken relationship. All of us, by nature, have chosen to live apart from God, to go our own way. And in doing so, we have cut ourselves off from the fullness of love and life God intended for us. You may feel that separation now, especially in the silence of pain. But separation doesn’t mean abandonment.

A love that still reaches

The good news, the best news, is that God has never stopped loving you. Even if you’ve ignored him, doubted him, or pushed him away, God’s heart is still for you. You were made in his image. You matter to him. And he wants more for you than just flickers of love and momentary hope.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”

God’s love reached all the way down into our broken world when he sent Jesus. Not to condemn, but to rescue, heal and restore. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the separation between you and God can be healed. He offers you a relationship, not a religion. Peace, not just positive thinking. Lasting hope, not just temporary comfort.

When you begin a relationship with Jesus, allowing him to be both Lord and Savior, you are reconciled to God. In that moment, his love is poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit.

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Romans 5:5).”

You move from candlelight to sunlight. From spiritual death to real and eternal life.

Real love. Real hope. Even now.

God doesn’t promise that following him will take away every pain. Cancer may still be hard. The treatments, the uncertainty, the toll on your body and emotions, none of that is easy.

But through it all, when you have a relationship with God:

1. You are never alone

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).”

2. His strength sustains you when yours is gone

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9).”

3. His love fills the aching places that nothing else can reach

“[I pray that you] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19).”

4. His hope extends beyond the grave

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:3-4).”

This is the kind of love and hope your soul was made for. And it can be yours, even today.

You can receive this hope right now

If you’ve never come into a relationship with God through Jesus, now, even in this moment, you can. He is not far. He is not angry. He is waiting with open arms.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).”

For a next step, see “A simple but life-changing invitation,” at the end of this article. 

The Light You Were Made For

Cancer can take much from you, your strength, your plans, even your sense of control. But it does not have to take away your hope. And it can never touch the love of God once it fills your life.

Don’t settle for candlelight. You were made for the sunlight of God’s love.

And it is shining now, even in the valley, waiting for you to step into it.

A Simple But Life-Changing Invitation

You can talk to God right now and tell him you need him. Acknowledge that you’ve been living apart from him. Ask him to forgive you, to lead you, and to pour His love and hope into your life through His Spirit.

He will.

You can pray something simple like this: “Jesus, I’ve been running my own way, but I need You as my Savior and Lord. Forgive me, draw me close, and fill me with Your love and hope through Your Spirit.”

If you prayed this prayer (or something similar), you have invited God’s light into your life. For help with getting to know God better, please click on one of the links below.