Joni Eareckson Tada
Alzheimer's disease is never an 'accident' in a marriage. It falls under the purview of God's sovereignty. In the case of someone with Alzheimer's, this means God's unconditional and sacrificial love has an opportunity to be even more gloriously displayed in a life together.Collection: Marriage
None of us, in our culture of comfort, know how to prepare ourselves for dying, but that's what we should do every day. Every single day, we die a thousand deaths.Collection: Death
Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life.Collection: Life
If churches around the world would grasp the revolutionary truth that Christ's transforming power always comes through sacrifice and weakness, it would dramatically alter the landscape of the global church.Collection: Truth
I have an interesting perspective on depending on others. I think it gives people a chance to serve. And I'm not so much big on independence, as I am on interdependence. I'm not talking about co-dependency, I'm talking about giving people the opportunity to practicing love with its sleeves rolled up.Collection: Independence
My weakness, that is, my quadriplegia, is my greatest asset because it forces me into the arms of Christ every single morning when I get up.Collection: Morning
If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.Collection: Society
The hallmark of a healthy society has always been measured by how it cares for the disadvantaged.Collection: Society
When we say yes to the grace of God, we are learning how to die.Collection: Learning
Well, painting is the one thing I do, that is just me. It's me and easels, and the pencils. And as long as I don't drool too much over the canvas, the colors come out pretty good. And it's a chance to express all that I've got inside, that I sometimes keep hidden. And I think that's why I paint big broad, wide open landscapes.Collection: Chance
Cancer is such a wake-up call to remind us how high the cosmic stakes really are and how short and brief and frail life really is.
Life becomes inspiring, not in spite of the problems and the hard hits, but because of them.
Some people tend to believe that I'm a strong believer, a strong Christian, but that's not true. I'm not a strong believer. I'm very weak.
One problem I have with faith-healing is that it tends to be focused only on the physical aspect of healing. But Jesus always backed away when people came to him only to get their physical needs met. My goodness, he was ready to have you lop off your hand! His real interest was in healing the soul.
Anyone who takes the Bible seriously agrees that God hates suffering. Jesus spent most of his time relieving it. But when being healed becomes the only goal - 'I'm not letting go until I get what I want' - it's a problem.
I was in every club and extra-curricular activity at high school, and I was in the National Honor Society.
You better be very convinced, very sure, before you pull your plug or someone else's plug, that you know what's on the other side of the gravestone.
Every time we go to sleep, it's a rehearsal of the day when our eyes will ultimately close and we wake up on the side of eternity.
Like all good citizens, the elderly and people with disabilities want to eradicate waste and fraud from government, but helping people with special needs meet their basic needs doesn't fit this description.
Oh, my goodness, when you're a mother and you just give birth to a child with spina bifida and - or Down's Syndrome or cerebral palsy, there's a bit of a shock you're going to have to go through, a bit of an adjustment curve.
The Bible is replete with commands to persevere, especially in the face of injustice.
My life goal is to see the world's one billion people with disabilities embraced and encouraged by the church.
Americans are nervous; Americans are restless; and what troubles me the most is that Americans are uncharacteristically pessimistic.
In the Christian faith, God really puts suffering front and center. He doesn't get squeamish about it.
God is truly on the side of those who work for social justice, especially when we accompany that work with the giving of the Gospel!
God is more concerned with conforming me to the likeness of His Son than leaving me in my comfort zones. God is more interested in inward qualities than outward circumstances - things like refining my faith, humbling my heart, cleaning up my thought life and strengthening my character.Collection: God
Nothing is a surprise to God; nothing is a setback to His plans; nothing can thwart His purposes; and nothing is beyond His control.Collection: Christian
Yes, I pray that my pain might be removed, that it might cease; but more so, I pray for the strength to bear it, the grace to benefit from it, and the devotion to offer it up to God as a sacrifice of praise.Collection: Pain
Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God's motives, but in understanding His character, in trusting in His promises, and in leaning on Him and resting in Him as the Sovereign who knows what He is doing and does all things well.Collection: Real
I want to stay in the habit of 'glancing' at my problems and 'gazing' at my Lord.Collection: Gazing
The weaker we feel, the harder we lean on God. And the harder we lean the stronger we grow.Collection: Stronger
Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.Collection: Love
God uses suffering to purge sin from our lives, strengthen our commitment to Him, force us to depend on grace, bind us together with other believers, produce discernment, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, spend our time wisely, stretch our hope, cause us to know Christ better, make us long for truth, lead us to repentance of sin, teach us to give thanks in time of sorrow, increase faith, and strengthen character.Collection: Character
Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step.Collection: Faith
This is the only time in history when I get to fight for God. This is the only part of my eternal story when I am actually in the battle. Once I die, I’ll be in celebration mode in a glorified body in a whole different set of circumstances. But this is my limited window of opportunity, and I’m going to fight the good fight for all I’m worth.Collection: Fighting
I'd rather be in this wheelchair knowing God than on my feet without him.Collection: Feet
AS a matter of fact, God isn't asking you to be thankful. He's asking you to give thanks. There's a big difference. One response involves emotions, the other your choices, your decisions about a situation, your intent, your 'step of faith.Collection: Differences
Contentment ... has an internal quietness of heart that gladly submits to God in all circumstances.Collection: Heart
My wheelchair was the key to seeing all this happen—especially since God’s power always shows up best in weakness. So here I sit … glad that I have not been healed on the outside, but glad that I have been healed on the inside. Healed from my own self-centered wants and wishes.Collection: Keys
Most people wish they could erase suffering out of the dictionary. Today's culture of comfort and instant gratification has no patience for suffering - most people want to drug it, escape it, divorce it; do anything but live with it.Collection: Divorce
Deny your weakness, and you will never realize God's strength in you.Collection: Strength
God deliberately chooses weak, suffering and unlikely candidates to get His work done, so that in the end, the glory goes to God and not to the person.Collection: Suffering
Nothing is a surprise to God; nothing is a setback to His plans; nothing can thwart His purposes; and nothing is beyond His control. His sovereignty is absolute. Everything that happens is uniquely ordained by God. Sovereignty is a weighty thing to ascribe to the nature and character of God. Yet if He were not sovereign, He would not be God. The Bible is clear that God is in control of everything that happens.Collection: Character
Love is extravagant in the price it is willing to pay, the time it is willing to give, the hardships it is willing to endure, and the strength it is willing to spend. Love never thinks in terms of "how little," but always in terms of "how much." Love gives, love knows, and love lasts.Collection: Love
What an encouragement to realize that God has reserved you and me for a special task in His great work. In His hands we're not only useful, but priceless.Collection: Encouragement
When we hurt, God doesn't always give us lots of words; he gives us the Word; the Word made flesh who is intimately acquainted with our grief and suffering. That's what helps the most.Collection: Hurt
Amazing, isn't it, that our prayers...can move the very heart of God who created the universe?Collection: Prayer
God doesn't just give us grace; He gives us Jesus, the Lord of grace.Collection: Jesus
We dare not think that God is absent or daydreaming. The do nothing God...He's not tucked away in some far corner of the universe, uncaring, unfeeling, unthinking, uninvolved. Count on it, God intrudes in glorious and myriad ways.Collection: Thinking
Programs, systems and methods sit well in the ivory towers of monasteries or in the wooden arms of icons. Head knowledge comes from the pages of a theology text. But the invitation to know God - truly know Him - is always an invitation to suffer. Not to suffer alone, but to suffer with Him.Collection: Ivory Tower