Joni Eareckson Tada
It is a glorious thing to know that your Father God makes no mistakes in directing or permitting that which crosses the path of your life. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is our glory to trust Him, no matter what.Collection: Father
A broken life in the hands of God is ripe for blessing.Collection: Blessing
True, God hates Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, mental illness, autism, and the rest (these conditions are all symptoms of the Fall). Yet he permits these things to accomplish something far more precious in our lives: patience, endurance, compassion for others who hurt, and refined faith and trust in God, to name a few.Collection: Hurt
No other religion, no other, promises new bodies, hearts, and minds. Only in the gospel of Christ do hurting people find such incredible hope.Collection: Hurt
Like art, like music, like so many other disciplines, prayer can only be appreciated when you actually spend time in it. Spending time with the Master will elevate your thinking. The more you pray, the more will be revealed. You will appreciate not only the greatness of prayer, but the greatness of God.Collection: Art
...we will stand amazed to see the topside of the tapestry and how God beautifully embroidered each circumstance into a pattern for our good and His glory.Collection: Patterns
He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.Collection: Pain
The greatest good suffering can do for me is to increase my capacity for God.Collection: Inspirational
There's a big difference between feeling thankful and giving thanks. One response involves emotions, the other, your will. Trusting God has nothing to do with trustful feelings.Collection: Differences
Heartache forces us to embrace God out of desparate, urgent need. God is never closer than when your heart is aching.Collection: Heart
Each one of us is God's special work of art. Through us, He teaches and inspires, delights and encourages, informs and uplifts all those who view our lives.Collection: Uplifting
The truth of the matter is, Satan and God may want the exact same event to take place - but for different reasons. Satan's motive in Jesus' crucifixion was rebellion; God's motive was love and mercy. Satan was a secondary cause behind the Crucifixion, but it was God who ultimately wanted it, willed it, and allowed Satan to carry it out. And the same holds true for disease.Collection: Jesus
Even at the cross, God permitted what he hated - the unjust and agonizing death of his own precious Son - in order to accomplish something he prized above his own Son's cruel death; that is, salvation for a world of sinners. So the world's worst murder becomes the world's only salvation.Collection: Son
If you had never known physical pain in your life, how could you appreciate the nail scarred hands with which Jesus Christ will meet you?Collection: Jesus
The Psalms wrap nouns and verbs around our pain better than any other book.Collection: Pain
God wrote a book on suffering, and its name is Jesus.Collection: Jesus
We've got to remember that the core of Christ's plan is to rescue us from sin. Our pain, poverty, and broken hearts are not his ultimate focus. True, he cares about these things, but they're merely symptoms of the real problem.Collection: Pain
God's purpose in increasing our trials is to sensitize us to people we never would have been able to relate to otherwise.Collection: People
The Christian faith is meant to be lived moment by moment. It isn't some broad, general outline--it's a long walk with a real Person. Details count: passing thoughts, small sacrifices, a few encouraging words, little acts of kindness, brief victories over nagging sins.Collection: Christian
Jesus went without comfort so that you might have it. He postponed joy so that you might share in it. He willingly chose isolation so that you might never be alone in your hurt and sorrow. He had no real fellowship so that fellowship might be yours, this moment. This alone is enough cause for great gratitude!Collection: Gratitude
Whether you send an e-mail, tell your spouse in person, write a letter, talk over the phone, or write a quick note, remember that what you say today has the capacity to transform the countenance and the character of the most important person in your life, your spouse.Collection: Writing
The best we can hope for in this life is a knothole peek at the shining realities ahead. Yet a glimpse is enough. It's enough to convince our hearts that whatever sufferings and sorrow currently assail us aren't worthy of comparison to that which waits over the horizon.Collection: Christian
Nothing will convince and convict those around us like the peaceful and positive way you and I respond to our twentieth century hurts and distress. The unbelieving world-your neighbors, the guy at the gas station, the postman, the lady at the cleaners, your boss at work-is observing the way we undergo our trials.Collection: Hurt
Suffering is arguably God's choicest tool in shaping the character of Christ in us.Collection: Character