Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Shana: I’m Shana with Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope. Thanks for joining us. Now Joni, I know you’ve been struggling with a few new health problems.

Joni Eareckson Tada: Well, they’re not exactly new, Shana, but my lungs have grown more fragile, and so it means I have to spend more time nebulizing, using my chest percussion therapy machine, and it’s not so much a struggle, it’s just one more inconvenient time-consuming thing I need to do in order to stay healthy. And it’s funny, but whenever there is a new health challenge that requires more of my routine, for about five minutes, I whine.

And I think, oh, Lord Jesus, isn’t quadriplegia enough? It’s pretty much how Job responded to his wife when she scolded him for trusting God in his grief and pain. He said, and his words are pretty famous, he said in the book of Job, chapter two, "Shall we receive good from the hand of the Lord and not also trouble?" What a great statement because Job is rather much saying that God is, He really is, more valuable, more important than his health.

Because Satan’s aim is always to make God look worthless and you look more valuable than God. And so Satan’s aim is to get you to think that God is not trustworthy, that you have every right to complain, that you know what’s fair, and that He does not. And believe it or not, this is the cosmic drama on which you, listening friend, play an important part.

Your life isn’t just lived out on an earthly plane. Every morning, you step onto a celestial battlefield, as it were. And if you are burdened with extra afflictions that keep prodding you to complain, you need to know that God’s purpose for pain is that you trust Him. Satan’s purpose in your pain is to make you believe God is not worth trusting.

Satan does not want you to make God look good by trusting your Savior. He wants to foster doubts and a complaining spirit. And so with these new problems with my fragile lungs, I know that my response to them carries a heavy weight in the heavenly realms. So I want to follow God in His Word. I want to in everything, even this new challenge with my health, I want to give thanks.

I want to believe that it is given to me that I suffer for His sake. And that means I suffer in such a way that makes Jesus look good and makes His Word look reliable, that makes His gospel believable to those who might look on. In my hardships, I want to treasure God above everything else. And in that way, I can mirror His worth to everyone.

So friend listening, I hope these things I’m sharing help you see how your life is lived on a cosmic battlefield because the way you respond to your hardships, it matters. It counts. Not just in this life, but for eternity. You are a trustee of the gift of life with which God has blessed you, even if it is filled with trouble.

Your life is on display before God, Satan, and countless numbers of unseen beings, not to mention people in the world watching. So when a new trial comes along, say with Job, "Shall we receive good from the hand of the Lord and not also trouble?" Remember, if you respond to your afflictions that way, one day you will hear those precious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Yes you are, faithfully serving Him every time you trust Him.

Shana: And friend, Satan won’t like it, but God will smile because it will show how you value Him above all things, whether your life is free of trouble or not. What great advice from Job, chapter two, verse 10. And listening friend, we’ll see you next time on Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope.