Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Shauna: This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. This week we've been talking about chronic pain and how we can live with it and the providence of God. And Joni, you've often said and you've even written that suffering and pain can only be understood and embraced in light of eternity.

Joni Eareckson Tada: Oh, that is so right. And I would add that you can only rejoice in your pain and suffering as you view it all from that eternal perspective. If we want to experience joy, we've got to look at pain from an end times point of view. That glorious age when God will unfold his plan and we will actually see how pain served us on Earth.

How it chiseled away at pride and chipped away at our sin, always refining, always polishing the image of Christ in us. We will see how pain literally pushed us into the arms of Jesus because we had nowhere else to turn. Pain will reveal how Jesus drew near to us in our agony.

We will look back and see that it was pain who showed us how fragile and brief life really was. We'll be grateful for how pain sandblasted us to the core and stripped away all those unnecessary temporary props. Best of all, we'll see how pain helped seal the bond between us and our union with Jesus Christ.

From heaven's perspective, we will be amazed at how pain cultivated a closer, much more intimate communion with Jesus. And this intimate communion with Christ produced in turn a heavenly joy in our earthly suffering. It was an unshakable joy that even helped us rejoice in our afflictions, the kind of joy that bolstered us through the worst days of pain.

Does that sound impossible? Not at all, because listen to this. Psalm 16 says that in God's presence, there's fullness of joy. So if pain pushes you into the presence of God, eventually there you will find fullness of joy. I could go on and on, but the point here is simply to show how pain only makes sense in light of heaven's perspective.

It's why you will often hear me say, "Please don't waste your pain. Don't waste your suffering." Look at it from an end times perspective, for when you do, you can be as 2 Corinthians 6:10 says, you can be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. And when you trust God in your pain, joy does not deny your anguish. Joy merely interprets your pain through the lens of God's wise and loving purposes.

I know that when I meditate on all the Bible promises that speak of no more sorrow or sighing, no more death, no more tears, no more disease, when I meditate on these things, my joy increases. I have joy in God himself, a heavenly gladness that rises from treasuring him above all things, no matter what the circumstances, even if it's great anguish and affliction.

Oh friend, these are the Bible truths that keep me going. These are the Bible promises assuring me that my pain fits, as hard as it is, it fits. It's not a mistake or an error in God's plan. It is perhaps his greatest tool when it comes to preparing me for heaven. And that's a fact to hold on to today if you struggle with chronic pain.

Shauna: Oh, I love these reflections, Joni. And I know you've written more in your pamphlet called Pain and Providence that we're offering to you, listening friend, as a special gift. So contact us today at joniradio.org and get your free copy. Again, that's joniradio.org. And finally, aren't you grateful that we have the assurance that one day all suffering will be gone and the long night will be over?