Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada with a fact of life for you today…
That’s right; it’s a fact. We are so much more content; we are so better able to face a trial if we know that after the painful experience, there will be a reward and pleasure. A thought like that helps spur on an athlete in training ... it encourages a mother during childbirth ... it helps a college student long past midnight hitting the books for an exam ... it bolsters a dieter as she looks at the scale … it inspires a weary workman on his way home to a warm fire and loved ones around the table. The very thought of a reward after pain even makes a trip to the dentist a bit more bearable. And I’ll tell you this, after 45 years of quadriplegia, to know there will be pleasure after pain sure does lift my spirits in this wheelchair of mine. To know that there’s a reward after my suffering ... Wow!
The writer of Hebrews was encouraging people who were facing terrible life-threatening trials. But, he encourages them in the tenth chapter with these words: “For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.’” And then, look at 1 Peter chapter 1. It says that coming soon for us is “… an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you … In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
Now, there’s a perfect description of the reward that should inspire you as you face today’s problems: an inheritance kept in heaven for you. Wow! There’s a beautiful old poem that speaks about this and it goes:
After the toil and the heat of the day,
After my troubles are past
After the sorrows are taken away,
I shall see Jesus at last.
After the heartaches and sighing shall cease,
After the cold winter’s blast,
After the conflict comes glorious peace —
I shall see Jesus at last.
After the shadows of evening shall fall,
after my anchor is cast,
after I list to my Savior’s last call,
I shall see Jesus at last.
He will be waiting for me —
Jesus, so kind and true;
on His beautiful throne
He will welcome me home—
After the day is through.
The reason I love this poem is because it describes what the reward is; it describes best the pleasure at the end of all the sorrow and heartache. And it’s simply this: I shall see Jesus at last. And, friend, to finally see Him in glory is to know that finally there will be no more night, no more pain, no more tears or sighing or heartache or death or disability again!
Let me again repeat First Peter chapter 1, verse 6.Think of the tough things you are facing right now, and remember, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” That’s what should inspire you on. It certainly is what I hold onto when I feel overwhelmed with the day. That’s my anchor when my wheelchair makes me feel so weary of life. “After a little while” … Four-and-a-half decades in a wheelchair is only “a little while” (actually, that verse in Hebrews says “a very little while”), and it’s really that brief in comparison to an eternity of joy and peace. And, “after” my paralysis, hey, I’ve got a reward waiting. I’m going to jump up, dance, kick, and square dance with the saints.
Friend, pleasure awaits you, as well. And you can rejoice in this, for after you have suffered for a little while — earth is just a very little while — you will see Jesus, too. He will be waiting for me — Jesus, so kind and true; on His beautiful throne, He will welcome me home — after the day is through.
© Joni and Friends, 2013
Compliments of Joni and Friends
PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376