Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Shauna: I'm Shauna with Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Thank you for joining us.

Joni, it never ceases to touch my heart the way you share your struggles so openly with us. It makes us all feel as though we know you personally.

Joni Eareckson Tada: Well, I would say you do, you and my friend listening right now, because the point behind our time here is to share hope and hardship. And I think you and I would agree, oh my, I wrestle with some big hardships.

Shauna: Well, you do, and you're always very honest about them.

Joni Eareckson Tada: And why not, right? I've shared this many times before, but every morning—and I'm not exaggerating—before I open my eyes, I'm already thinking about another difficult day with quadriplegia and all the stuff that goes with it. My head may be on the pillow, but I am already praying, "Oh God, help me. I need your strength this morning because I am so empty, I'm so tired. Fill me with your grace, fill me up until I am overflowing. I can't do this today, but I can do all things, even this difficult day, through Christ who strengthens me."

Now, Shauna, I have lifted that prayer up to God thousands of times. As the sun rises, there I am confessing to Him how weak I feel, how weak I am. And my prayer is all based on the promise of Philippians 4:13. And here's the promise: in exchange for my weakness, God gives His supernatural strength. And once I am up in my wheelchair, my hope is revived. And when I say hope, I mean the promise of God's faithfulness, His promise to keep me going, His promise that at the finish line, there'll be a wonderfully rich inheritance waiting for me. That's what biblical hope is all about. And so I know that God will help me get up in the morning and head out into the difficult day.

Now, there is an important lesson here that sadly some Christians never learn, and that's the direct correlation, the connection between hope and the troubles with which God fills our lives. If we felt no need of Jesus, we would soon forget the God of hope that Romans 15 talks about. God makes certain that our lives have lots of trouble to ensure that we reach for His steady arm when we feel overwhelmed. And I love the way J.I. Packer puts this. He says, "The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time telling us over and over that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, a sure refuge, is that God spends so much of His time bringing home to us that we're weak, mentally, morally, and we dare not trust ourselves to find or even follow the right road."

There is valuable potential in our troubles. Biblical hope, that is, the hope of heaven, can sustain us through the worst pain. I've got a friend named Nancy. She has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an excruciating condition in which the connective tissue that holds her joints together is deteriorating. When I Zoom call with Nancy, I see her lying in bed with neck and body braces that are holding her body together. But with the sweetest smile, Nancy says that she can go through hell because she knows heaven is on the horizon.

And so every day, both she and I say to Jesus, "We cannot. We simply can't do this. But Jesus, we can today do all things as you strengthen us."

Shauna: It's clear that for Nancy, heaven is a big incentive. We should consider our sufferings as not worth comparing with the glory that's on the horizon. Thanks for these hope-filled words, Joni. And friend, they're all here for you on joniradio.org.