No matter how hard life is, knowing Christ – and knowing him well – is always worth the sacrifice.
No matter how hard life is, knowing Christ – and knowing him well – is always worth the sacrifice.
This Christmas, you can give the Perfect Gift!
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Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org
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Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I’m sharing lots of hope.
And not only am I filled with hope; I’m overflowing with gratitude. I am so grateful to God that well, that I’m alive! I mean I passed my latest birthday in style, even celebrating the many years I’ve lived in this wheelchair and I’m so thankful that I survived not only one bout with pneumonia back in the spring, but a second bout with pneumonia right as summer was ending. It’s taken a long time to get back up-to-speed, but my lungs are clear, my heart is happy, and my love for Jesus keeps growing deeper. My friend asked me about that the other day – she was wondering about the connection between suffering and our intimacy with Christ. And she said to me, “Joni, do you ever think all the many hardships you go through aren’t worth it?! I mean like when things get really bad, can you honestly say that knowing Jesus better is a fair return for all the pain?” Well, I wasn’t certain exactly how to answer her because it's so personal.
I mean, I could look at someone who is, let’s say, being persecuted for their faith and in a horrible prison. And I could ask them if drawing closer to Christ is worth the suffering. It’s hard for anybody to look into the heart of someone else and grasp how very precious their relationship with Christ is despite all the pain and affliction. Does the spiritual benefit of knowing Jesus better really outweigh the cost? Well, to answer my friend who had this question, I came across these beautiful words by Eileen Berry who writes for Bob Jones University Press. And listen to what she writes about the cost of knowing Jesus in your suffering:
“O Christ, Who spared not any cost, Nor any grace withheld, But poured forth Your redeeming blood In love unparalleled; What would you have me offer, Lord? What must I count as loss That I may taste the fellowship That brings me near Your cross? Why should I cling to gifts You give? Why grasp in foolish pride What You who gave Yourself for me Now bid me lay aside? To know You is my highest gain Worth any sacrifice, A treasure worthy to possess At any earthly price. Yet if behind my open hands, My heart shrinks from the cost, Teach me that nothing offered You Is ever truly lost. A hundredfold reward awaits In one glimpse of Your face, My sacrifice forgotten In the riches of Your grace.”
Well, that poem describes it beautifully. And I love that line, how Jesus is a treasure worthy to possess at any earthly price. Oh, friend, for me, he is worth the trouble of quadriplegia; he’s worth the agony of chronic, neuropathic pain; Jesus is such a precious treasure, that I consider him worth more than all the distress of pneumonia. And whatever you are struggling with today; whatever your hurts and hardships, I pray you can say the same. I pray you can say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:8, “That you consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord.” And Paul continues saying, “… For whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” Wow! Can you agree with the apostle? Can you say the same? I trust you and I can, no matter what degree of our suffering.
So, yes, Philippians 3:8 is your hope-filled word today. Because no matter how hard life is, knowing Christ – and knowing him well – is always worth the sacrifice. That’s your good word today from Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope.
© Joni and Friends