It is only through affliction and hardship that you begin to understand your suffering Savior. When he gives you power to overcome and power to rise above your painful circumstances – then you truly experience God’s grace.
SHAUNA: Hi, this is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope and I love the way God delivers us. Here’s our dear Joni reminding us that God always delivers us and rescues us when we face impossible hardships.
JONI: Most every Christian I know longs for God to deliver them out of their painful circumstances. They want God to fix things, change things, mend, solve things – make it better, just make it go away! It’s part of our human nature to want that. We are humans and we crave comfort and convenience; we’ll take the bed of roses any day over a bed of nails. It’s just what it means to be human, when suffering hits us broadside; when a life-altering injury or a bad medical diagnosis upsets our reality, we want God to solve it, change it, make it go away!
When I first learned I would be a quadriplegic, it terrified me. The prospect of sitting down for the rest of my life, unable to use my hands or walk or run, well to me, it was worse, much worse than a bed of nails. Back then, I researched every new piece of – well, research about spinal cord injury; I tried all sorts of treatments, including oxygen therapy. And I can’t tell you how many healing services I went to, all in pursuit of making it better; making my paralysis go away. If God were good, he would just have to fix my spinal cord; he was obligated to solve it, change it; make it go away. It was a very human response, a very understandable response.
But over the years, I discovered that my spiritual nature craves something else, our spirit recognizes that God’s grace to sustain us through painful circumstances is stronger and is mightier and is much better than any deliverance out of those circumstances. And I'm not talking through my hat here. God's grace in the middle of a trial is richer and stronger and better than any deliverance out of it. That’s because God’s grace contains the full revelation of who he is in all of his holiness and compassion! For it is in the midst of a deep trial that we are united with Jesus in our suffering. It is only through affliction and hardship that we begin to understand our suffering, Savior. And when he gives us power to overcome, power to rise above our painful circumstances, then we experiencethe Lord of grace in a way unlike we could on a bed of roses. It’s only on the bed of nails where our hearts are melded with his. True, God may deliver us out of our trial, but if not, it’s all that we might better know our deliverer. Yes, God may rescue us out of a painful situation; but if not, then we have a better chance of knowing our Rescuer.
SHAUNA: Friend listening, these are wonderful insights for anyone going through a tough time, and you can find more of Joni’s encouragement on joniradio.org. And if you have a friend who’s hoping God will change their circumstances, or fix their problems, make their things better be sure to send them to joniradio.org, too. Remember that God may lead you through painful times, not so much to deliver you, but that you will know the deliverer. Not that he will heal you, but that you’ll know the healer. And that, friend, is the much better thing. Thanks for listening today on Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope. And if you need some extra encouragement, just go to joniradio.org where you’ll find all kinds of resources and inspiration. Remember, that’s joniradio.org.
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