Thanks for joining me today for these few minutes on “Joni and Friends.”
Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and speaking of friends, I was talking with a close one the other day and we got into the most interesting discussion… it was about prayer. My friend knows I'm big on God's sovereignty – you know, that nothing escapes His control; that He has all things in His hands. So her question was, “Well, Joni, if God is sovereign, why pray? If everything falls under His decrees, if everything moves and breathes and has its being in Him, then why take the trouble to pray as if things could be changed?
I just bet you have wondered the same thing, right? Remember those times when you struggled over God's plan for your life? And so in your private moments, you thought, “Well, if God's plan for me is already ordained, if it’s already on the books, then why ask Him for direction, why ask for guidance? Good question, huh… but you could turn it around and say, ‘Okay, if God is not sovereign, then why pray? I mean, if He’s powerless to control the outcome, or really do anything; if His will can be thwarted by the devil or whoever… then prayer doesn't count. There's no sense praying because He would be helpless to do anything we asked anyway, right?’”
That’s kind of what I told my friend. And, boy, it sounded scary to her. So I'll stick with God's sovereignty, even in the face of those questions. Besides, the Bible tells us He is in control. Plus, the Bible commands us to pray. God describes in His Word instances where He was moved by people's prayers. Things did change. And things still do change. Besides, His answers to prayer are almost as mysterious as His sovereignty. Who would have ever thought God would be glorified in the cross, but He was and He still is. In the same way, whoever would've thought that God would be glorified through a wheelchair... but He is.
I can't explain it all, but that doesn't stop me from praying... and praying for things that I know full well work into His plan. Things like changing hearts, changing attitudes... I pray for changed perspectives, for changes in big and small circumstances. And all with an eye to the advancement of Christ's Gospel, because I'm sure of one thing: God makes certain prayer works in partnership with his plan. So the question isn't why pray if God is sovereign, the point is, pray because God is sovereign and that he is in control, guarantees that our prayers will have answers.
All this to say, we need your prayers at Joni and Friends. I want you to join me in asking God to change the hearts of the hundreds of people with disabilities we reach every day. I'm convinced God's got a special strategy to reach the world's disabled and to lift them up out of depression and give them a home in heaven. But it won’t happen without prayer, so please would you visit me today at joniandfriends.org. Please know that I would love to hear from you, so drop me a line on Joni’s Corner at joniandfriends.org or you can always contact us at PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376. I am so grateful to God that I can share these words of encouragement with you, and you don’t even have to have a disability. That’s why we call our ministry Joni and Friends. It’s all about friends spending time together and uplifting one another through prayer and giving insights in the word of God that inspire and refresh. Want to learn more? Well, you can always visit us at joniandfriends.org for more Christian encouragement or if you know someone with a disability, don’t forget to send them our way at joniandfriends.org.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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