Every day, you are placed at the front line of a spiritual battle. Ask God to give you strength and courage to trust him and to share the Gospel with those you encounter.
Every day, you are placed at the front line of a spiritual battle. Ask God to give you strength and courage to trust him and to share the Gospel with those you encounter.
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It's Joni Eareckson Tada’s 73rd birthday this week! Will you join her in sharing the Good News of Jesus with people struggling with disability?
Give in Joni's Honor
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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. Get involved at joniandfriends.org or on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and it’s my birthday week!
And every year I celebrate it with more passion, more joy, and more commitment than I did the year before! And I think it’s because, well, when you reach the age of 73, you know your time is short. You know your years are running out; you realize that heaven is on your horizon, and it won’t be all that long before you win your last battle for the Kingdom. And oh, friend, that is what energizes me. Just because I’m in my 70s does not mean the spiritual war is winding down. Quite the contrary. It is getting harder, more fierce. And if you haven’t already realized it, life is a battle – it’s supposed to be; the Bible portrays it as a fight; a very good fight, but still a fight. Now I know the older we get, the more we tend to lean on our Purple Heart medals, thinking that we’ve paid our dues; we put in time and we want that time off; we deserve a break.
But the way I look at it, at 73 years of age, I am not about to cash in on my IRA, retire to Florida, and play Pickleball, if I could play it anyway – I can’t, I’m paralyzed – but I’m not going to do that. And it’s why I thank God for this wheelchair. Every day, it puts me in the middle of the battle. As hard as it is to live with quadriplegia, I must not step back from the front lines. It is a valiant, courageous, noble fight that God has put me in – a fight to trust him, and not collapse; it’s a fight to stay hopeful, and not cave into fear; every day I have to fight to stay submissive to God’s will, and not complain about things. Frankly, I am afraid that if I did slack away from the front lines, I’d lose my edge. I’d lose the sense of urgency, I’d lose that fighting spirit.
You’ve heard me say it before. The cosmic stakes are just too high. Too many people are lost and in danger of hell. And many of them, if not most of them, are people with disabilities. So, while time is short, I am stepping it up to get the Gospel to the world’s disabled. Like Amy Carmichael once said: “We shall have all [of] eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only a few hours before sunset in which to win them.” Friend, the sun is setting – have you noticed? – and we simply cannot delay. Again, it’s Amy Carmichael who observed that, “Satan is so much more in earnest than we are – he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.” Well it’ll cost a lot to keep fighting the good fight. It costs you your comfort, often your free time; it costs you the luxury of complaining, and more. But, oh, we have all of eternity to celebrate such glorious victories.
So join me in stepping up to the front lines. We do it every day at Joni and Friends as we reach more and more people with disabilities around the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. It is a great cause and it’s why I am donating my 73rd birthday to the ministry. So, if you want to send me a birthday present, then feel free to give a gift in honor of this – wow – amazing 73rd birthday of mine. You can get all the details at joniradio.org. Again, that’s joniradio.org. And before we go, let me share these two quotes one more time from Amy Carmichael. She said, “[We’ll] have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few hours before sunset in which to win them.” And then she adds, “Satan is so much more in earnest than we are – he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much [it’ll] cost.” Friend, think of the cost that Christ paid for our salvation; and now, let’s get out there and share the good news. Help me do it at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends