Joni Tada Eareckson - Gods Hand in Our Hardship

The printed version of this eBook is the God's Hand in Our Hardship pamphlet, ISBN-13: 9781596365032

Cover photo: Sascha Burkard

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

It is illegal to photocopy, transmit electronically, post on the internet, or reproduce this pamphlet in whole or in part in any form.

2012 Joni Eareckson Tada
Rose Publishing, LLC
PO Box 3473
Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473 U.S.A.
Email: info@hendricksonrose.com
www.hendricksonrose.com
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• Brings relief to those asking How can a good God allow suffering? Why do good people suffer? and Is Satan responsible for suffering? in less than 30 minutes.
• Offers wisdom, tips, and insight from Joni Eareckson Tada, an international advocate for individuals with disabilities, a published author, a founder of a non-profit organization, and a quadriplegic who has learned how to trust in God in all circumstances.
• Uplifts, encourages, and inspires those struggling with hardships by highlighting the 6 ways God remains in control over every situation.

Everyone who takes the Bible seriously agrees that God hates suffering. When he walked on earth, Jesus spent much of his time relieving suffering. And we are to do the samethe Bible tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit prisoners, and speak up for the helpless. When we feel compassion for people in distress, we know that God felt it first. He shows this every day, even now, by raising sick people from their beds, often to the wonder of doctors. Every day God grants childless couples babies, pulls depressed people out of the pits, protects those with Alzheimers from crossing the street, and writes happy endings to sad situations. Even when he has to punish sin, he says in Ezekiel 18:32 that it gives him no pleasure.

All of creation waits eagerly for Christs return when sin, sorrow, and suffering will be done away with (Isa. 35:56, 10; Rom. 8:2223). But until the kingdom of God comes in fullness to earth, sin, sorrow, and suffering simply come with being human. Thankfully, though, God loves to redeem our sin and our suffering, as wellall for our good and his glory!

Feng Yu

a personal perspective from Joni

The Lord took absolutely no pleasure in my broken neck. Like any father who has compassion on his children, God grieved to see me hurt. Yet at the same time, it pleased the Lord to permit my accident. My spinal cord injury was his sovereign design for my benefit and for his good pleasure.

How can this be? Gods ways are so much higher than ours. I once heard Dr. John Piper say that God has the capacity to look at the world through two lensesthrough a narrow lens and a wide-angle one. When God looks at a painful event through a narrow lens, he sees the tragedy for the hurt it is. He is deeply grieved. God feels the sting when a child dies of cancer or a husband is killed in an accident. However, when God looks at that same event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy in relation to everything leading up to it as well as flowing out from it. He sees a mosaic stretching into eternityit is this mosaic with all its parts that brings him delight.

Pedro Talens Masip

When I was first injured, I was desperate to understand this. Thats when my friend Steve Estes showed me Lamentations 3:3233, Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. In the span of a single verse, the Bible asserts that the Lord brings grief, yet he does not willingly bring grief. True, God allowed my accident to happen, but he didnt get a kick out of itit gave him no joy. God tried this out on himself. He willed the death of his own Son, but he took no delight in it. God saw how Jesus death would demonstrate his incomprehensible mercy, as well as bring his people to glory. God often wills what he despises becauseand only becausehe has a wide-angle view on the world. As Steve once told me, God permits what he hates, to accomplish that which he loves.

how can a good and loving God allow suffering?

The core of Gods plan is to rescue us from sin. Our pain and poverty and broken hearts are merely symptoms of the real problem. God cares most not about making us comfortable, but about teaching us to hate our transgressions and to grow up spiritually to love him. In other words, as we head for heaven, God lets us continue to feel much of sins sting through our suffering. This constantly reminds us of what we are being delivered from, exposing sin for the poison it is. Thus, one form of evil (suffering) is turned on its head to defeat another form of evil (that is, our transgressions), all to the praise of Gods wisdom.

tough questions, honest answers

if God hates suffering, why doesnt he get rid of suffering in the world?

If God were to eradicate suffering from the world, he would have to get rid of sinnerssuffering is inextricably linked to our rebellion against God back in the garden. But God does not want to obliterate sinners; he wants to save them. John 3:1619 reveals Gods heart about saving sinners. When the kingdom of heaven came to earth with the arrival of Jesus, God opened the way for unbelievers to be rescued through Christs death. If at that point God had ushered in the fullness of the kingdom and closed the curtain on suffering (doing away with all pain and heartache), what would have become of us? We wouldnt have been born, let alone had a chance to embrace Christ!

Nikolay Titov

God is rich in mercy toward us! He is delaying closing the curtain on sin and suffering so that more peoplemillions more over the last 2,000 yearsmight come to know Christ. Until Jesus returns, our sufferings drive us to reach out to unbelievers with the good news: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for their salvation. The cost of suffering may be great, but people are worth it.

• For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of Gods one and only Son (John 3:1618).
• The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).