When you don’t get what you want, it’s the key to entering a glorious, fuller fellowship with Jesus.
SHAUNA: This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Here’s a great word from Joni on how to live with suffering.
JONI: I have often shared with you how I live with chronic pain. Yes, I know I’m a quadriplegic, and it doesn’t make sense that I experience pain, but what can I say, I do. I guess when you sit down for most of your life, it really does wear on your back and hips; you know what I mean? And it can really wear on your resolve, on your outlook for the day. Like the other evening when I went to bed and I could hardly sleep because of the pain in my back and hip – I prayed and asked the Lord to please break the pain cycle during the night so that please, I want to wake up with Jesus and face a new day without discomfort in my wheelchair, oh please. But when morning came and I awoke, the pain was still there. And so, I took a deep breath and did what I often do when things get hard. I preached the Gospel to myself. The Gospel that bids me, bids each of us in Luke 9:23 to daily take up our cross and die to self. That’s what the cross-filled life is all about. Following Jesus up the road to Calvary where we leave at the foot of his cross, all our physical wants and needs, our earthly dreams and wishes, and even every prayer that God says “no” to.
It’s not something we do occasionally. It’s not something that interrupts our otherwise happy, healthy lives, it’s something we need to do daily. We pick up our cross daily. Like someone once said, “a cross-filled life is made up of cross-filled days. And every morning, that’s the Gospel that I preach to myself. Is it easy to do? No, it’s not; of course not. With man it’s impossible. But with God, all things – even daily picking up your cross – even that is possible.
In fact, I memorized a quotation that relates to this; it was written by William Law, an Anglican minister. Centuries ago, he wisely wrote this; now listen to this, “Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, every darkness and desolation with both your hands, as a blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with your Savior. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it; and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of your prosperity. That state is best, which exercises the highest faith in, and fullest resignation to our God.”
Oh, friend, there is so much in there. When your God doesn’t give you what you want [for me, a pain-free day]; when you and I receive trouble with both our hands as a blessed occasion of dying to ourselves, it is the key to entering into a glorious, fuller fellowship with Jesus. Another saint of old, Henry Liddon who also suffered with pain; he wrote, “Every hard effort generously faced, every sacrifice cheerfully submitted to, every word spoken under difficulties, raises those who speak or act or suffer to a higher level; and endows them with a clearer sight of God; braces them with a will of more strength and freedom; and warms them with a more generous, large and tender heart.”
SHAUNA: Receiving trouble from God with both hands willingly and gladly; that’s what it means to follow Christ. Remember to share this program with your Facebook friends. Spread the encouragement; spread the joy and the freedom of what it means to pick up your cross and follow Jesus.
© Joni and Friends