Diamonds 2019 - Through Christ, We Are Strong - Joni E. Tada

hi I'm Johnny Erickson tada and I'm so grateful to have this chance to be part of the Living Hope online conference for those who are chronically ill you know I've lived as a quadriplegic in a wheelchair for nearly 52 years I know something about chronic illness especially dealing daily with severe pain and also as I speak I'm in my second battle against stage 3 cancer and with this newest tumor just removed I'm now healing up and awaiting radiation and I tell you getting up in the morning and this wheelchair for me is not easy I mean I lie there in bed and my eyes are closed my head's on the pillow and I'm waiting for my girlfriend to come in and I know she's gonna give me a bed bath and she's gonna do my toileting routines and she's gonna exercise my legs and my arms and strap on my corset and my support hose and strap on my mind her and get me dressed and sent me in my wheelchair and pushed me to the bathroom and brush my teeth and brush my hair and blow my nose and it's like I'm absolutely overwhelmed you know what I mean before the Sun has come up before I've hardly opened my eyes I'm overwhelmed thinking Jesus I can't do this a lot of people think I'm a strong person but I'm not I mean every day my weakness is so glaring to me so obvious and my weakness is ever before me and so when I do get up in the morning I say to God I can't do quadriplegia I have no resources for this day I have no strength for it no energy for it but Lord Jesus and my lungs are also another issue Lord Jesus you have strength you have resources you have energy so please help me in my weakness and be strong help me to face this day with courage when I tell you what this is so real all this clearing my throat in my chest before I even stood up in my wheelchair in the morning I've got strength sent straight from heaven and I've got joy hard fought for and hard-won because I've gone to the God of all strength and I've submitted to him my brokenness my need my limitations my weakness my emotional in abilities I can't do this God but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me it means and you know this very well you who suffer chronic illness it means that every morning is a battle isn't it it's a fight but you know what for the Christian it's a good fight it is a good fight because you have to fight hard to stay satisfied in God when you are chronically ill whether its long-term spinal cord injury and chronic pain like me or whether you have Lyme's disease or other autoimmune deficiencies which set you back or Emme or MS or any number of different acronyms which keep you bedridden for days on end it's a fight but it's a good fight to stay satisfied in God and what in the world could bring him more honor more glory than to know that you are remaining loyal to him and despite your many limitations hold on I'm going to take a quick break in coffin I'm gonna be right back ooh well just got somebody in here to help me coughing that helps to be sure you know sometimes people say of me and maybe they say it of you gods piling on too much it appears as though God is doing more harm to you than good I mean I've had people say that to me just in the last week when they learned about my my second cancer battle and they think oh my goodness is it god harming you it doesn't look like he's helping you well you know a comment like that really makes you think because there are countless references in scripture telling us that God will do us no harm he'll only do us good there's Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 41 look it up later it says that well God says I will do them good with all my heart and all my soul and then in psalm eighty four verse 11 it says no good thing will God withhold from those who walk uprightly and then there's Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 you probably know that one will where God says I know the plans I have for you plans to help you and not harm or hurt you plans to prosper you and to give you a hopeful future I mean these are just a few verses that underscore the good that God wants to do to us and I tell you what when when I first started dealing with chronic pain maybe 30 years into my quadriplegia those verses used to confound me because to me it seemed that chronic pain and quadriplegia and cancer and now this new cancer it's it's as though god it sure seems like you're harming me but friend these painful things your your disability your clinic illness my chronic illness these painful things are the dark difficult driving rain of God's sovereignty but flip the coin and the sunshine of God's sovereignty is the depth of faith the scarred and seized in wisdom the profound peace the settled nosov your soul the opportunities to showcase your loyalty to the God of the Bible and the iron-fisted trust that is gonna come from walking through that valley of the shadow of death this is the good that God is interested in hard and awful things that ultimately end up birthing true good peace joy satisfaction good in your soul god will never harm your soul he might harm your body that's gonna be the tough part but he'll never ever harm your soul and like you I want to remain loyal I want to remain trustworthy to the Lord Jesus I want suffering to stretch my soul's capacity for His grace because every day when I choose to obey God and trust him with my chronic pain and with my disability and now with his cancer every day every decision I make to trust him increases my eternal capacity for joy and worship and service in heaven and friend I don't want to diminish that and I don't think you want to either let's not jeopardize it let's not lessen it let's not risk it by complaining and becoming embittered and sullen no let's let's trust God in it and increase our eternal capacity for joy and worship and service in closing Eugene Peterson and one of his sermons describes the Apostle Paul as a any pet sitter a scarred veteran a man who has visited the extremes well that might be you you are a scarred veteran and I just bet you have visited the extremes and then Eugene Peterson adds Paul knows that what God has done within him is far more important and far more lasting and real than anything that God could do to him and I would agree what God is doing within my heart and within your heart in our chronic illnesses it's far more important and lasting and real than anything that could be done to us the point is we're week we are needy you and I depend on others and we depend on God we are not ashamed to ask for help because it teaches us more how to be dependent and how to be humble and I ask help from God and from others each and every day just as you do but all of it is helping me to understand who I really am at the core and how I can serve these others that help me as well as serve the Lord Jesus and I hope that you can do that even from your bed as I do from my wheelchair thank you for listening and have a great time on the rest of this conference [Music] you

Channel: Sara Willoughby

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Id: okUacZ_f764

Length: 9min 18sec (558 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 26 2019