Do you ever feel like you can’t go on? Your hardships push you to lean on Jesus completely – he always seems bigger to those who need him most, and that’s you and me, friend!
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and sometimes it feels like you can’t go on.
Yesterday, I wrote a letter of encouragement to Jane. She’s a disabled friend who now has to live in a care facility. Her mother is too old to care for her at home, and it breaks my heart to see my friend feeling so discouraged. But I can understand because if I were her, I’d feel the same. Sometimes, when circumstances become so disappointing and overwhelming, it’s just hard to keep going. I prayed about what I should say to dear Jane. She lives in another state, and I’m not able to just pick up and go visit her. So I did the best I could and I opened my heart to her as honestly as I could. I shared with her that even after so many decades of quadriplegia, there are so many days I wake up and I still think to myself, “Oh, God, I don’t have the strength for this. I cannot do this. God, I feel like you are asking way too much of me.”
But I know that the apostle Paul felt the same way when he wrote about the hardships he faced on the mission field. He says in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” In other words, Paul was saying, “I would rather die than face what I’m going through.” And to be quite frank, sometimes I feel the same. I certainly know that Jane does, disabled in that care facility. And maybe you could say the same. But the next verse in 2 Corinthians 1 gives such hope. It says: “But this happened,” that is, all of Paul’s troubles on the mission field; all of my chronic pain and problems with quadriplegia; all of Jane’s new adjustments to that care facility; the Bible says that all these things happen, “that we might not rely on ourselves but on God.” Friend, there’s your answer. It may be hard and it may not be the answer you want, but it is God’s answer when we suffer and suffer greatly. These things happen that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God. It’s why, together, we can say, “The weaker we are, the harder we have to lean on Jesus; and the harder we lean on Him, the stronger we discover Him to be.”
Let me say that again. The weaker we are, the harder we have to lean on Jesus. But the harder we lean on him, the stronger we discover him to be, and that’s a good thing. Because God always seems bigger to those who need him most. And together, we need him a lot, don’t we? Jane needs him a lot. I need him a lot. You know, we comfort others not when we merely listen to their troubles and empathize with their disappointment; rather, Christian comfort is the kind that makes other hurting people stronger to be able to endure. Christian comfort is not the kind that merely sits with someone and just feels their pain. The comfort of Christ goes a step further and helps infuse heavenly hope and divine courage in their hearts.
I don’t know what you’re facing today that’s hard; I don’t know if you’re listening to me sitting in a bed in a care facility. But wherever you are and whatever the hardships, please know that God has not abandoned you. This hard thing has happened that you might not lean on your own resources, but that the props might get kicked out from under you so that you have nowhere to turn but to Jesus. And remember, he always seems bigger to those who need him most, and I know that you need him a lot. I trust that God will help you endure through what I’ve shared. Because you know me: I love sharing hope in every single one of your hardships.
© Joni and Friends