Top 125 Quotes & Sayings by Joni Eareckson Tada - Page 2

Amazing, isn't it, that our prayers...can move the very heart of God who created the universe?

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.

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.

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.

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.

No other religion, no other, promises new bodies, hearts, and minds. Only in the gospel of Christ do hurting people find such incredible hope.

God wrote a book on suffering, and its name is Jesus.

God turns on its head one form of evil - suffering - in order to defeat another form of evil - that is, our transgressions. It happened at the cross, and it occurs in the lives of followers of Christ every day.

Take those road hazards- the potholes, ruts, detours, and all the rest- as evidence that you were on the right route. It's when you find yourself on that big, broad, easy road that you ought to worry.

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.

Deny your weakness, and you will never realize God's strength in you.

Often when people are diagnosed with a life-changing medical condition, they feel overwhelmed. They feel choked by darkness and hopelessness. Those are times when answers simply do not suffice. That's because answers don't always reach the problem where it hurts: in the gut and in the heart.

I had to be healed of my desire to be healed.

When life is rosy, we may slide by with knowing about Jesus, with imitating him and quoting him and speaking of him. But only in suffering will we know Jesus.

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.

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.

God cares most not about making us comfortable, but about teaching us to hate our transgressions and to grow up spiritually to love him.

When we honestly ask God the 'why' question, He doesn't give us answers as much as He gives us Himself.

One of the most wonderful things about knowing God is that there’s always so much more to know, so much more to discover. Just when we least expect it, He intrudes into our neat and tidy notions about who He is and how He works.

Most of the verses written about praise in God’s Word were voiced by people who were faced with crushing heartaches, injustice, treachery, slander, and scores of other difficult situations.

My longings are best met when, in prayer, I simply let my heart beat in time with the Lord's.

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.

Maybe the truly handicapped people are the ones that don't need God as much.

Only God is capable of telling us what our rights and needs are. You have to surrender that right to Him.

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.

God lets us continue to feel much of sin's sting through suffering while we're heading for heaven. This constantly reminds us of what we're being delivered from; exposing sin for the poison it is.

The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord.

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.

What a way to learn great theology! That's what comes to mind whenever I sing one of those old hymns. "And Can It Be" is like putting the doctrine of salvation to music. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is a melodic lesson in grace. No wonder good hymns make for strong faith!

God always seems bigger to those who need him most. And suffering is the tool he uses to help us need him more.

Thankfully, God brought wise Christian friends alongside to help me discover life-transforming precepts in his Word.

I wished God were like He used to be, a few notches lower. I wanted Him to be lofty enough to help me but not so uncontrollable. I longed for His warm presence, times when He seemed more… safe.

Thats what I love about serving God. In His eyes, there are no little people...because there are no big people. We are all on the same playing field

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.

God permits what He hates in order to accomplish something that He loves.

Every Christian who keeps looking up stretches his heart's capacity for Heaven.

Subdue your heart to match your circumstances.

I deal daily with chronic pain and, at times, my pain feels like a lemon that God "squeezes," revealing my sour attitude, peevish spirit, and tendency to complain or grumble. Did not God use my pain to expose my sin, I might - like many of us - not be aware of the sin of which I'm capable.

God points to the peaceful attitude of suffering people to teach others about Himself.

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

When I look at Jesus' warm and intimate friendships, my heart fills with praise that Jesus was. . . a man. A man of flesh-and-blood reality. His heart felt the sting of sympathy. His eyes glowed with tenderness. His arms embraced. His lips smiled. His hands touched. Jesus was male! Jesus invites us to relate to him as the Son of Man. And because he is fully man, we can relate to Jesus with affection and love.

Believers are never told to become one; we already are one and are expected to act like it.

Faint hearts are encouraged when they read about others who, despite amputation, spinal cord injury, or psychiatric disorders have a vibrant trust and confidence in God.

The Bible isn't quick to give answers; it mainly gives the Answer.

Christianity isn't all that complicated ... it's Jesus.

Faith means being sure of what we hope for now. It means knowing something is real, this moment, all around you, even when you don't see it.

There is nothing that moves a loving father's soul quite like his child's cry.

Many good Christians are confused about complex social issues of our day, such as doctor-assisted death or medical research which uses stem cells from human embryos. They wonder, 'Why shouldn't science use discarded fetuses for research?' And if someone finds his medical condition intolerable and hopeless, 'why shouldn't he have the legal right to end his life?' Although the Bible does not address these issues in particular, it does provide guiding insights.

I once read in a Bible commentary that the word "Christian" means "little Christs." What an honor to share Christ's name! We can be bold to call ourselves Christians and bear the stamp of his character and reputation. When people find out the you are a Christian, they should already have an idea of who you are and what you are like simply because you bear such a precious name.

Suffering always prompts heart-wrenching questions: if God is good, why would He allow this pain in my life? Is God truly sovereign over accidents and birth anomalies, or does the devil set the world's agenda? How do I counsel people who are despairing of their condition?

There is this fine line between presenting to You all of my weakness and thinking that it can't be done. In Your strength, I find my own.

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.

God wants us to be a good example to others who are observing us.

If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn't surprise me. It would be just like Him. It would be totally in keeping with His generous character... Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy-utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous... Heaven is going to be a place that will refract and reflect in as many ways as possible the goodness and joy of our great God, who delights in lavishing love on His children.

The success of God's Word in our lives is linked intrinsically to our application of its truth.

Many people in the throes of suffering, disappointment, and despair, feel utterly stuck in their circumstances. They see no hope beyond their day-to-day drudgery of disability routines; but when hurting families place themselves under the shower of God's mercy, suddenly the clouds part. They realize there's hope, life, and even joy beyond their suffering.

Now, most people who suffer realize that the Bible contains answers for their plight; they just don't know where to look.

We're not the paragons of virtue that we'd all like to think we are. And so, to shatter that myth, God will use suffering to expose the stuff of which we're made.

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.

Once the reader firmly grasps the truth of human exceptionalism under our Creator God, then the answers to confusing cultural issues begin to be clear.