Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Guest (Female): Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope.

September is Pain Awareness Month, and this week we've been talking about the way we handle our pain and how to find contentment in it. Joni, that’s not easy.

Joni Eareckson Tada: It sure isn’t. Many of our listeners could easily quote from Psalm 38 as their life verse that says, “My pain is ever with me.”

You're right, Shauna. It is not easy. I could also quote Psalm 38 as my life verse. There have been so many Sunday mornings I’ve sat in my wheelchair in church trying to worship the Lord. I've tried so hard to concentrate on the words of the hymns and the message in the sermon, but I’m sitting there and my pain is so bad I’m fighting back tears. I can’t seem to focus.

I calm my anxiety by whispering to my pain, reminding it that it will not crush me because 2 Corinthians 4:8 promises—it’s a Bible promise—that although my pain presses me in on all sides, it will not crush me. It cannot crush my soul because the Bible assures me.

So sitting there, I remind myself of other promises like 1 Corinthians 10:13, that God will not let me be tested beyond what I can bear because he will always provide enough grace to see me through to the other side.

Most of all, I’m sitting there in church telling myself that this pain is God's way of leading me by the hand deeper into the fellowship of knowing Jesus in all that he suffered. God knows that in that fellowship of suffering, I will come to appreciate and understand his son Jesus better—much better than if I did not deal with pain.

I've mentioned just a couple Bible verses thus far, verses I can easily recall sitting in church on Sunday in awful pain. There are lots more I could share, but it’s what I must do when dealing with pain.

Whether it’s on a Sunday or in bed at 2:00 AM in the morning, I will go crazy unless I anchor my thinking to what’s true. So I meditate on Bible truth that promises me I’ll make it, I’ll survive, and that I will be better for it for having been drawn deeper into the fellowship of Christ's suffering.

It’s why another verse I hold onto when I’m in pain is Philippians 4:6-8, where I say to myself, “Joni, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, pray with thanksgiving and present your request for help to God. And then whatever is true, Joni, whatever is right, pure, lovely, admirable—if anything in your head is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things.”

For me, the most lovely and admirable and excellent thing to think about when I’m in pain is how the grace of God will keep me safe, safe for as long as I remain in that bittersweet fellowship of pressing up against Jesus in that fellowship of suffering.

If you want a more intimate relationship with Jesus, God's going to invite you to share in the sufferings of his son. As the old reformers would say, “Wherever the head goes, the body goes.” And if our head, Jesus Christ, suffered, so must we, his body.

Richard Baxter once said that the sufferings of this present life will make heaven all the sweeter. God uses suffering to prepare us for a richer communion with him, to know him with deeper gratitude and love in glory. The goal is not to escape from suffering. The goal is Jesus Christ.

Guest (Female): Amen. We want to offer you Joni’s pamphlet called “Pain and Providence.” It’s free at joniradio.org.