Get up in the morning, take hold of God’s grace, and head into your day leaning hard on Jesus. You’ll one day hear the sound of a rich welcome in heaven.
SHAUNA: Hi, I’m Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope with the story from Joni I know you’ll resonate with.
JONI: I was talking on the phone with a young man named Roger the other day. Roger is in a wheelchair—actually, he's been in it for many years and he's just getting, well, he’s getting tired. He was asking my advice about some health care decisions that he's facing right now. He would very much like to decline medical treatment for his problems. Basically, he said to me “Joni, I'm just so tired of this disability of mine; I just want to disappear. I just want Jesus to take me home.”
I took a deep breath because I can identify. Really, I can't begin to tell you how many times when the weight of my quadriplegia has felt so heavy, so painful and I have thought, “Lord Jesus, this burden is just too great. Please, is it not now time for me to go home?” But as soon as I think that way, I’ve just got to banish that thought from my mind. Because I know God has me here, God has Roger here, and most of all, God has his Son, Jesus Christ, right here in the midst of our pain and problems.
Now, it's true [and I told Roger this], that suffering, and loss make us want to go to heaven. It's true that broken bodies and broken hearts crush our hopes that earth can ever really satisfy, that it can ever really keep its promises. But we simply cannot have a woe-is-me attitude about our hardships. Listen, my excitement about heaven is not some pie-in-the-sky desire to leave behind my paralysis; it’s not a sanctified death wish; rather, if I can but trust the Lord Jesus through my paralysis, my earthly afflictions actually serve me on earth and will serve me in heaven, stretching my capacity for joy, and my capacity for peace, and praise to Christ. It's the message I enjoy passing on to every person I meet in a wheelchair; every family who is struggling; every parent who is praying for his disabled child. And it's the message I shared with Roger.
I told him about 2 Peter 1, where it says, “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Wow, don’t you love that part that says if we persevere through our pain and problems, we will not only be welcomed into heaven, we’re going to be richly welcomed. Oh, my goodness, there’s a special welcome reserved for those who have made good on their faith by persevering.
That is true Christian encouragement not only for Roger and those like him; but for you. Friend, I have a feeling you not only want to be welcomed into heaven, you want your welcome to be rich. You want your perseverance to have earned you a happy, wealthy entrance into heaven. It’s why the Apostle Paul tells us all to rejoice when we participate in the sufferings of Christ, “so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” Get it? We rejoice on earth so that we may be overjoyed in heaven.
Oh, friend, the joy is coming so please hang in there. Don’t give up; don’t think about throwing in the towel spiritually; don’t settle for a tired, mediocre spiritual walk. Remain faithful. Persevere through the problems. Do what Roger has decided to do now. Get up in the morning, take hold of God’s grace, and head into your day leaning hard on Jesus—because there’s nothing better than one day hearing those words, “Well done” from your Savior. It's what a rich welcome into heaven is going to sound like.
© Joni and Friends