James Van Der Beek says he has had the "hardest year of my life" since his cancer diagnosis

He said on Instagram: "I had to come nose to nose with death. And all those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me.

"I could no longer be a husband who was helpful to my wife. I could no longer be a father who could pick up his kids and put them to bed and be there for them. I could not be a provider because I wasn't working. I couldn't even be a steward of the land because at times I was too weak to prune all the trees during the window that you're supposed to prune them."

James has six children - Olivia, 14, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 11, Emilia, eight, Gwendolyn, six, and Jeremiah, two, with his wife Kimberly who he married in August 2010.

James went on to share that after a journey of self-discovery and meditation, he saw that "I am worthy of God's love, simply because I exist. And if I'm worthy of God's love, shouldn't I also be worthy of my own?"

James previously admitted he was a "sobbing, terrified mess" following his cancer diagnosis.

In an interview on 'Good Morning America', James explained: "Physically, I'm great. I'm feeling really good. Emotionally, you know, it's a lot. It's really a ride ...

"I was honestly in shock [after the diagnosis] ... I had a whole agenda for what I thought my year would be and what I thought my priorities would be ... and the reality that all of that was going to change and take a different trajectory - it felt like a nightmare honestly at first."

James went on to insist he was thankful his cancer was spotted because he now has a good chance at making a recovery.

He added: "I'm going to make changes that I never would have made otherwise, that I'm gonna look back on 30 years and say: 'Thank God this happened'

"So what can I do right now in order to make that the case. And that's how it was about 90 per cent of the time. I would say that about 10 per cent of the time I was a sobbing, terrified mess."