How do you give God the glory in your disability? The devil sees disability as his territory – he wants you to despair, to give up on trusting God. But when you praise God for delivering you from your sin, it sends the devil running, so trust in God’s goodness and give him the glory for your salvation!
At Joni and Friends, we’ve made a change in our Mission Statement.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and our old Mission Statement has been around for more than 40 years. It says that Joni and Friends exists to communicate the Gospel and to equip Christ-honoring churches worldwide to evangelize and disciple people affected by disability. But we saw something happen during COVID, something that made us look deeper into why we do what we do. You see, all during those years with COVID, we witnessed God do amazing things among people with disabilities around the world – despite unthinkable hardships; even as disabled people were being turned away from medical help or denied access to even basic services, these same people were turning to Jesus Christ and giving God all the glory. It’s one reason we started Joni’s House. Those are disability centers around the world where we give the Gospel, as well as food, medical help, counseling, and so much more. And families with disabled children? They came through our doors praising God and giving him glory.
And it was this – this thing about God’s glory – that caused us to take a closer look at our Mission Statement at Joni and Friends. And so, our board of directors approved the following as our new Mission Statement - let’s see if you notice the change, okay? - because the new statement says Joni and Friends exists “To glorify God as we communicate the Gospel and mobilize the global church to evangelize, disciple, and serve people living with disability.” Did you catch it? Do you see the change? We added three words but, man, are they important. We do all that we do to glorify God. At Joni and Friends, that’s what we do! Like Ephesians says, "We exist to the praise of [his] glory."
And our ministry has an advantage when it comes to God showcasing his glory through our work, because God just delights in displaying his power through weak, despised, disabled, and lame people. He glorifies his Son Jesus when rescuing people with disabilities. Psalm 72 says “he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy... he will rescue them.”
How does this give God glory? Well, here’s the deal: the devil thinks that disability is his territory. He uses things like spinal-cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, or any number of other disabling conditions, and Satan uses these things as ammunition against God. The devil taunts God and incites people - even God’s people - to doubt the goodness of our Heavenly Father. He gets people to thinking, “Oh, surely, God cannot be good when he allows children to be born with heartbreaking disabilities; God cannot be good when he allows broken necks and broken backs!” Oh, but at Joni and Friends, when we give the Gospel to these same people, they turn around and start praising God for the rescuing, they praise him for delivering them out of their sin. And this sends the devil hightailing it the other way. Just like Isaiah 33 says, God causes the lame to take the plunder. Woo hoo! He causes them to capture the victory, and to push back the darkness. And all of it gives enormous glory to God. And that’s why our ministry exists at Joni and Friends, whether through delivering wheelchairs, establishing Joni’s Houses, holding Family Retreats, or whatever, we do it all, all of it, to the glory of God. So, find out how you can be a part of making it happen at joniradio.org. Be a part of turning up the wattage on God’s glory by volunteering with us at Joni and Friends. Again, find out how at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends