Trials you go through are windows into the heart of Jesus. Suffering is the connecting point between the Savior and yourself.
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Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and if you’re hurting, I have got an uplifting word.
Because when we are hurting, when we are struggling with a bad back or arthritis in our hip or our neck or whatever, if there is one thing that eases our pain, it is this – we want someone to understand. We want somebody to really identify with us, to have some idea of what we're enduring. Somehow, someway it validates what we are going through. That we’re not out there all alone on a limb by ourselves, we want to experience a fellowship with others who are going through the same thing.
I tell you what; it is certainly like that for me. I hate feeling alone and alienated in those dark times when my paralysis seems overwhelming. On my really rough days, it helps to remember Hebrews 2:14 where it says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, [Jesus] too shared in their humanity." Wow! Jesus is at one with Christians on many levels, but perhaps the most meaningful identification is the fact that he, too, experienced suffering and pain and anguish. It says that he was tested and tried in every way like us. That helps! It really helps to know that! When it comes to your suffering, the Lord Jesus has gone ahead of you, friend, and he has intimate, experiential, firsthand knowledge of the pain, the weight, the frustration, and the struggle that you are facing. He appreciates the depth of your anguish. He understands how bad – how really bad it hurts. He connects, he cares.
But here is the neat thing – it works both ways! Not only does Christ identify with us in our suffering, we identify with him in his suffering. He identifies with us, and we identify with him. He appreciates all that it means to be human, and we appreciate all that his divine grace supplies. Through suffering, he participates in our humanity; and through suffering, we participate in his divinity. He has conquered and overcome and so we are made more than conquerors; we are overcomers.
So why do we struggle so to escape our suffering? Why do we look so desperately for release? Well, first, it is reasonable to seek for a release and relief from pain. If it can be fixed, then fix it! But chronic things like, well, my quadriplegia? I'm not so desperate for release when it comes to that. Pain, yes, but not necessarily my paralysis. And I suppose this is why I'm not earnestly seeking to be healed and raised up out of my wheelchair, because I see this I know he is showing me wondrous things about his grace that, without my wheelchair, I just might not understand; I might not grasp. And when I see his great love on the cross, it gives me courage to take up my cross and follow him.
Do you want someone to understand what you are going through today? Turn to Jesus. Because when you do, you will better understand what he has gone through for you. One more thing and just know that I love sharing this sort of hope with you every single day so, please join me next time right here for more inspiration and even more hope. And by the way if you’d like to share this program on your Facebook page, just click the share button at joniradio.org. Spread the word and the hope. This is Joni Eareckson Tada and I’ll see you next time because I love sharing hope. And finally, don’t run from the Lord in your pain. Run to him, because guess what? He understands.
© Joni and Friends