Beyond Your Limitations
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Well-meaning people will sometimes say to me, “Joni, God knows he can trust you with suffering. He knows your character. He knows you’re strong and that you’ll respond well to hardships.” My reply always takes people aback a little. I will say, “You’re not even close. It’s the very opposite of what you are saying.” I think God entrusts hardships to me because he knows that I can’t be trusted.
I fully accept that I am the least likely candidate to handle affliction well. I know how weak I can be. And how stubborn, peevish, and irritable. And this is why I run to God daily for help! “Oh, help me, Jesus! I can’t face another day of quadriplegia!” When I hurry to God with that attitude, he lavishes grace upon grace on me—all because I’m so quick to realize my weakness and his strength, and that my need for him is not partial, but total.
Lord, I know I will never forget these things—because I don’t dare forget them! I need you desperately—every waking and sleeping moment. I couldn’t fake being courageous and strong, even if I wanted to. You have made me helpless to show that my total help is in you. And what a good, kind, and faithful Helper you have been to me.
Pressing On: How to Lean on Christ through Suffering
After more than 55 years living with quadriplegia and chronic pain, Joni Eareckson Tada knows what it means to “press on” through suffering. Joni encourages you to join her in living out Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
