Why Joni Eareckson Tada Believes God Uses Suffering for Our Good

Published: November 6, 2024

Why Joni Eareckson Tada Believes God Uses Suffering for Our Good

By Movieguide® Contributor

Quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada explained how the Lord uses suffering to refine us so we better understand just how much we need Him.

Though Eareckson Tada’s story is not one most people can specifically relate to — she became a quadriplegic after her senior year of high school during a diving accident — her life of suffering and pain is something many can understand. While some would see her situation as a curse, Eareckson Tada sees God’s blessing in it because every day she understands just how must she needs to rely on the Lord.

“I don’t expect everybody to go through the kind of deep suffering that I have — quadriplegia, a broken neck, paralysis — but I hope that our friends watching will steward well the suffering that God gives them,” she said at Liberty University. “It could be a disappointment in grades, it could be not getting the job you hoped for, it could be an accident, it could be a botched surgery, it could be some death in the family, it could be any number of different things, but all things come at us so that we might steward them well.”

She believes that suffering is a tool that God uses to teach us and help us understand just how broken we are and how reliant on Him we should be.

“I think suffering is just something that God uses to teach us who we are on the inside and how much we need change and transformation through His spirit…Suffering sandblasts us to the core, showing us that we’re not the paragons of virtue that we think we think we are” said Eareckson Tada. “And that all of us, myself included, we all need changing.”

Eareckson Tada also encouraged her audience to continue their commitment to God day in and day out, rather than putting Him in a box and only turning to Him in times of trouble.

“Not to get all mediocre about your Christian life, all ordinary and plain. Never ever go out your front door after your quiet time and say, ‘Okay, God, we did our little thing together, but I’ve been to enough Bible studies, I’ve memorized enough scripture, I kind of got the lay of the land from here. So, I’ll tell you what God, I’ll take it from here. But I will check in with you if I need you,’” she said. “And then off you go on automatic cruise control. God resists us when we’re like that. He resists the proud, you know, the proud who think, ‘I’ve got this figured out. I know God and how He’s gonna be.’ And so, He resists the proud. But He gives grace to the humble and all the humble are people who wake up every morning in desperate need of Jesus.”

Eareckson Tada continues to see God use her disability to further His kingdom through her ministry Joni & Friends.

Their mission? “To glorify God as we communicate the Gospel and mobilize the global church to evangelize, disciple, and serve people living with disability.”

The foundation uses social media to encourage its followers.

“His purpose in redeeming us is not to make our lives happy, or healthy, or free from trouble. His purpose is to make you more like Jesus,” Tada said in a recent Instagram post.

“If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, we certainly are not above our Master. God destined us for trials to make us more like him! So today, be strengthened and encouraged in your faith, never unsettled by your trials.”