Joni & Others Quotes on Suffering
(For your fridge or bookmaker)
Email to a suffering friend
Jesus learned obedience from the things he suffered…Hebrews
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“The heavy hand of heartache lays us low when we disobey. But we learn from suffering. My… that wheelchair, this strange sometimes unwelcome addition to our life together, makes us trust. Teaches us to obey. And we find joy, fresh and invigorating each day. “
Choices Changes pg 270 Joni Eareckson Tada
“Sufferings are but little chips of the cross. “
Joseph Church
“A certain type of ministry of the gospel is cruel. It does not mean to be but it is. It means to magnify grace, but what it does is rather the opposite. It scales down the problem of sin, and loses touch with the purpose of God. The effect is twofold: first, to depict the work of grace as less than it really is; second to leave people with a gospel that is not big enough to cover the whole of their need. Isaiah once pictured the misery of inadequate resources in terms of short beds and narrow blankets (Isaiah 28:20)
These Inward Trials in Knowing God by J.I. Packer - Chapter 21 pg 273-283
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“Today as I look back, I am convinced that the whole ordeal of my paralysis was inspired by His love. I wasn’t a rat in a maze. I wasn’t the brunt of some cruel divine joke. God had reasons behind my suffering, and learning some of them has made all the difference in the world. He has reasons for your suffering too.”
Joni – Intro to a “Step Further.”
God’s call, since it is effectual, carries with it the operative grace whereby a person called is enabled to answer the call of the gospel and embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the gospel. God’s grace reaches down to the depths of our need and meets all the exigencies of the moral and spiritual impossibility, which inheres in our depravity and inability. And that is the grace of regeneration. God effects a change so radical and all pervasive, a change which can’t be explained in terms of any combination, or accumulation of human resources… a change that is nothing less than a new creation by him..
John Murray “Redemption Accomplished and Applied” Pub Banner of Truth Trust
“Every person alive fits somewhere onto a scale of suffering that ranges from little to much…”
Joni – A step further
Therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
To be in Christ Jesus is to be perfectly identified with Him in the judicial reckonings and dealings of God (suffering) and it is also to be one with Him in vital union by Faith. Immunity from condemnation does not depend in any way on our “walk,” but solely on our being in Christ.”
Octavius Winslow 1857
“God has shown one of the most effective ways in which suffering can bring glory to Him – it demonstrates His ability to maintain the loyalty of His people even when they face difficulties.”
Joni – A Step Further
“Christian, take heart! The truth that God is at work in each of His people should make us take heart. It is one of God’s grand encouragements. Think of it! – the Almighty Lord at work in former rebels to make them like Himself. Unthinkable, yet true! “
Christians, Take Heart by Tom Wells – Published by Banner of Truth Trust
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“All through the Bible God shows us this is exactly the way He does things to bring maximum glory to Himself. The apostle Paul told the Corinthian Christians to look around at themselves and realize that, on the whole, God called people into fellowship with Himself who by human standards were neither wise, nor influential, nor of noble birth. He’s saying God deliberately chooses weak, suffering, and unlikely candidates to get His work done so that when the job is accomplished; the glory goes to Him not us. Think of it! The very weakness and problems we find so painful are just what He uses to honor Himself. “
Joni – A step Further
“One second of glory will outweigh a lifetime of suffering. What are years of toil, sickness, battling with poverty, sorrow in any or every form, when compared with the glory of Immanuel’s land! One drink from the river of pleasure at God’s right hand, one breath of Paradise, one hour amid the blood washed throne, will more that compensate for all the tears and groans of earth.”
A.W.Pink – Comfort for Christians -Baker Book House
“Suffering sets the stage on which good qualities can appear. “
Joni – A Step further
“God knows how to always bring us His Jacobs down. Yes God has been pleased to save us and reveal his mercy and grace to us in Christ. But listen we must be brought down and made to know our utter helplessness and inability. There is no room for boasting and glorying in the flesh when God's grace and God's work is concerned. (Ps. 107:1-6; 11-13; 1 Cor. 1:26-31). "Jacob was left alone." He seemed to be in a miserable condition, helpless and alone; but he was truly in a most blessed condition. We need to remember that being Isolated is often the forerunner to God coming by His Holy Spirit and reviving us by His amazing gospel and mighty power.
Pastor Don Fortner
“His packages of sufferings are wrapped with mercy, because He knows how desperately we need His qualities to become ours.”
Joni- A Step Further
"But now mine eye seeth thee." Job 42:5 This is not a vision, nor a dream, nor only an emotional spell. It is to see by faith the living God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is to understand something of the MAJESTY and SOVEREIGNTY of God. It is to understand something of the RIGHTEOUSNESS and HOLINESS of God. It is to see Him in His CHIEF GLORY—His redemptive mercy and grace in Christ (Exo. 33:18-19). 1. When did Job see the Lord? When the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to Job (John 6:44-45; I Cor. 2:9-10). "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father."
Pastor Henry Mahan
“ But we can’t… we wouldn’t do that. Joni’s disability doesn’t give us an excuse to sin. Bend God’s standards. Just because our circumstances are a little unusual doesn’t mean we’re the exception. God will only bless us if we obey Him, and we want – really want to most of all.
Ken Eareckson Tada on Sex before marriage - Choices Changes
“As for your personal requests, God has already anticipated them. He is waiting for you to make them. You don’t not have to twist His arm. God has, unknown to you, been encouraging you to formulate them in your mind. For prayer is not you trying to move God. Prayer is being caught up into God’s directions and activity. He orders the affairs of the universe, He invites you to pray to Him and in your partnership, bring His perfect plans into being.”
John White – The Fight IVP
“God’s Word is true, I know it’s true because I’ve experienced it. I’ve found it so.”
Joni in Joni
“The answer seems to be that the Christian life for Paul was not the so-called good life of prosperity and ease. Instead it was a life of freely chosen suffering beyond anything we ordinarily experience. Paul’s belief in God, and his confidence in the resurrection and his hope of eternal fellowship with Christ, don’t produce a life of ease that would have been satisfying even without resurrection. No, what his hope produced was a life of chosen suffering.”
“A great flood of joy came into my heart that night, and I made the decision to invite Jesus Christ into my heart and life. I didn’t understand it all, but I was to learn that God is patient, loving, forgiving and tolerant of our mistakes.”
Joni in Joni
“Brethren, sisters, will you enlist under the conquering banner of the cross? Once rolled in the dust and stained in the blood, it now leads on the armies of the Lord to victory! Oh that all ministers would preach the cross! Oh that all Christian people would live under the influence of it, and we should see brighter days than these! Unto the crucified be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
C. H. Spurgeon – The Passion and Death of Christ Eerdmans
“Daddy put his hands on my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes. Maybe we’ll never know the ‘why’ of our troubles. Joni. Look – I ‘m not a minister or writer - I don’t know exactly how to describe what’s happening to us. But, Joni, I have to believe God knows what He’s doing…”
John Eareckson - Joni’s father - in “Joni”
“Our trouble is that we start with ourselves instead of starting with God. Instead of going to the Bible and looking at it’s revelation and discovering there what salvation means, I start with myself and certain things I want and desire, certain benefits that I always want to enjoy in this life and in this world. I want forgiveness of sins; I want peace of conscience and of mind; I want enjoyment and happiness…we do not start with ourselves but with God”
Martyn Lloyd Jones – Safe in The World – Kingsway Publications