Waiting for God’s Healing? Read This…
Movieguide® Contributor
When Joni Eareckson Tada had a swimming accident as a teenager and became paralyzed, she thought that if she was “good” enough then God would heal her.
“I could not understand why God wouldn’t heal me,” Tada shared on PRAISE. “I mean Psalm 84:11, ‘No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless,’ and [I] kind of got my life in order and I was, you know, walking according to the word…Jeremiah, I think it’s chapter 32, where God says, ‘I will do good to them, His people, with all my heart and soul, God wants to do good. No good thing will He withhold. What one of you who asks for bread will be given a stone? Your heavenly Father gives only good gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of light.'”
“So good, good, good. Well, walking is good…So, it made sense. Why wouldn’t God heal me? And if he didn’t heal me, then his idea of good must be very different than mine, and so I went to faith healers,” she recalled.
“Sometimes the greatest sign of strength is the ability to ask for help. Artist and author Joni Eareckson Tada knows this all too well…”
READ MORE: WHY JONI EARECKSON TADA BELIEVES GOD CAN USE YOUR WEAKNESS FOR HIS PLAN
Tada saw Kathryn Kuhlman and locals who claimed to be healers. She went to churches whose pastors anointed her with oil and prayed for her.
“Someone grabbed my canes. ‘Arise and walk’ and I would do all I could to get up and nothing happened. But rather than discourage me, I went back into the Bible, and I just dug a little bit deeper, and in the Bible, I began to understand God’s idea for good.”
“And that is that I might have courage, and I might prize things like patience and perseverance and endurance and self-control, that I might cling to Jesus,” the Joni and Friends founder continued. “I read in 2 Corinthians 1 where Paul says, ‘My brothers, I don’t want you to be uninformed about the troubles that we endured in Asia. We were in far beyond what we could endure, and we despaired of our lives,’ and I read that, and I thought, yeah, that’s me. That’s me. I’m just buried in my life.’”
Tada recalled 2 Corinthians 1:9, which says that Paul went through these trials so that he could learn to rely on God.
“So, for 57 years I’ve been relying on God, and I’ve got that patience, I’ve got that perseverance; praise the Lord,” she said fervently. “I’ve got the courage. Doesn’t come from me, does it?”
“It comes from the Lord Jesus, without whom I’d be nothing,” she continued. “I’d be burnt toast. I’d be gone in a nanosecond. I would have drowned in that water, but he’s been so generous and the greatest tragedy of my life, breaking my neck, ultimately became God’s greatest use of my life,” she finished.
A few years after Tada had her accident, she started Joni and Friends. Her organization provides resources, support and spiritual and practical guidance for those with disabilities.
Tada may be best known for her organization and as an author and speaker, but she also has a beautiful voice. She previously sang for Movieguide® at 2014’s Faith & Values Award Gala.
She recorded her song “Alone Yet Not Alone” for a movie of the same name. The song was even nominated for an Oscar.
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