Heaven Rules: When Suffering and Sovereignty Collide

Joni Eareckson Tada: For me, it’s personal. It began back in 1967. I was seventeen and athletic. One summer day I went swimming in the bay with my sister. I swam out to this raft anchored a few yards offshore and took a reckless dive into shallow water. I knew then my life had changed forever.

My doctor said, “Joni, you’re going to be paralyzed for the rest of your life, without the use of your hands, your legs . . .” 

I said, “God, I can’t live like this! I won’t live like this!”

Because I couldn’t hold razors or push pills down my throat, I knew I couldn’t end my life physically, so I was tempted to end my life emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I wanted to just lie in bed, tell my mother to turn off the lights and shut the door.

Finally, in the dark behind that closed door, I cried out, “God, if I can’t die, then show me how to live!”

Thankfully, God put Christian friends in my life who opened the Bible and showed me that God permits what He hates to accomplish that which He loves. He permits awful things like paralysis to bring forth Christ in me, the hope of glory. My Christian friends helped me find purpose in that, and I learned to give thanks even in the little things. With each bit of obedience my faith grew, my perspective widened, the world got bigger, and eventually I wheeled out of that dark bedroom and began to embrace life.

I discovered there’s a world of other disabled people in dark bedrooms who, like me, need to embrace life and know God. I started writing about this and speaking, and before I knew it, my message gave birth to Joni and Friends.

If there are folks languishing in isolation without hope, our team at Joni and Friends connects them to local churches and resources, providing a Bible and the hope of Christ. If there’s a marriage breaking apart due to a child’s disability, we’ll scholarship them at one of our family retreats. If there’s a disabled child in Uganda crawling in the dirt, or a grandmother in Guatemala being pushed in a wheelbarrow, our Wheels for the World teams will provide a wheelchair and a Bible in their language. If someone can’t reach any further than the radio, the Joni and Friends radio program brings hope right into their home. Our Christian Institute on Disability trains pastors, policy-makers, and equips churches. And when it comes to the next generation, our Cause for Life interns roll up their sleeves and they do disability ministry in dark corners of the world.

My husband Ken and I are joined by an amazing team at Joni and Friends. Whether at our headquarters in Southern California, our area ministry teams around the country, or our network of partners and volunteers all across the globe, our passion is to see people and special needs families embrace Christ, embrace the circumstances that God puts them in, and embrace life. I was there! I know what it’s like. For me, every face, every life changed, every soul saved is personal. So join me; do as Christ commands in Luke 14. Go out quickly, find the disabled, and bring them into His fellowship. It will not only fill God’s house, it will fill your heart.

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Oh Nancy and all my friends here at this True Woman conference, thank you for inviting me to be with you this evening! I would give anything to be here in person, but when you are an aging quadriplegic with very poor lung capacity and stamina—well, I just can’t travel like I used to. But, I want you to picture me here “with” you tonight, looking into your faces and speaking to you directly from my heart. 

After what Nancy has just shared (she gave me an overview), I want to help you take these rich doctrines of God’s goodness and His sovereignty, and I want you to actually live them out when you need these amazing truths the most. Great doctrines like “God is sovereign” and “God is good”—these things look pleasing on your conference notepad. You instinctively know that they are important and precious fundamentals of your faith, but how do you live out the reality of God’s sovereignty and His goodness in your life? How do you move into it, make it real, apply it? 

When the afterglow of this conference fades—and it will—and you feel yourself slipping back into your old rhythms of life—next week when your migraines kick in or TMJ or severe back pain acts up; when your teenage son slams out the front door, leaving you standing there bewildered; or when you hear those words, “The scan shows cancer,” or “My husband just lost his job,” or “We can’t make the mortgage payments” . . . When hard, deep suffering crouches at your door, how do you engage with God’s sovereignty and His goodness? What does it look like in your afflictions?

I trust that in our time together my few reflections will help you embrace your sovereign God through your toughest of painful trials, because I want you to move beyond merely resigning yourself to your problems with a stiff upper lip or submitting to your hardships with a “woe is me” attitude. Accepting your lot in life means much more than coping or adjusting to hard times. These responses may be completely natural, but they are self-defeating. 

Response mechanisms like these are just that: they are mechanisms, and they fall so far short of how your sovereign God wants you to step into the hard things that He brings your way. So please, take it from me, the lady in the wheelchair: you can move beyond coping to actually embracing your hard, painful problems with hope, anticipation, and with a strong sense that God is up to something big and wonderful in your life.Your afflictions can provide a glorious pathway to genuine joy, deep contentment, and a sweeter, more intimate friendship with the Savior than you ever dreamed possible.

So, how do you get there?

Well, more than fifty-five years of living with quadriplegia . . . Like you saw in that video, I broke my neck in that diving accident over a half century ago, and almost half of that time living with chronic pain. (Do not ask me how a quadriplegic like me can feel pain, but believe me, I do.) After living with pain for so long, I have learned to live on what God says. If He said it, I have to live it. My suffering will not allow me to do anything less. His Word must have its way in my life. Besides, how could I not take Him at His word? I mean, look what He’s done for me! 

There was a time I was guilty, condemned, about to be executed for my sins, trembling, standing (as it were) blindfolded in front of a firing squad. And then this kindly man stepped forward and removed my blindfold, tied it on himself, and said to me, “I love you, Joni, so I’m going to take the bullet for you.” Then this amazing man looked at me and said with great passion, “All I ask is that you tell others what I have done for you and that my love will do the same for them.” Then this kindly man straightened, faced the deadly line of rifles, and said, “Fire.” 

So, as far as I’m concerned, that man has my confidence. He died for me; why would not I trust His Word? He has beyond a doubt proved His love for me, so that man has earned my trust, and He has the same for you. The Son of Man (Jesus’ favorite title for Himself) has said, “Let me go to the cross instead of you.” Jesus took the bullet for you.

So we listen up when He speaks. We live on what He has to say. When we suffer, there must be good reasons. His Word is filled with comfort and strength, guidance and hope and encouragement. Our Savior extends a very special assurance that helps those who suffer even thrive. It is an assurance that I cling to every single day. Psalm 119:50 says this: “This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promises give me life.”

Okay, for you who suffer hard, God has a special comfort for you: it is His Bible promises. Every blood-bought promise in God’s Word imparts life, gives grace, energy, strength, power. Every Bible promise gives assurance that you can survive in your afflictions, that you will make it through the worst of hardships, and that you can even flourish. Our God is sovereign, and that means every Bible promise is guaranteed. Our God is good; that means in His promises He has your best interest at heart.

When you live on Bible promises, you are resting your life in the hands of your good and sovereign God, and although a painful trial may not seem good at the time, God pledges to you—He has a promise for you. In Jeremiah 32:40–41 He says, “I will never stop doing good to them and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good” (paraphrase).

Oh friend, clinging to a promise like that you’re in the safest place in the universe. You have tucked yourself in the cleft of the rock. You are in the shelter of His wings, in the shadow of the Almighty. Living on God’s promises is the surest way to bring the greatest glory to your God and Savior, and it’s the way I live in this wheelchair. It’s the way I live with pain. It’s the way I trust my sovereign and good God.

Let me show you what living on His promises looks like, okay?

This past summer Ken and I had a chance to spend a few days up at a friend’s lake house in the Sierra Mountains. I really needed the rest, and so did Ken. It had been a busy season at our ministry of Joni and Friends, and we were both weary. Ken was tired from nonstop caregiving.

When we arrived at the lake house, I insisted that he take the bedroom at the far end, beyond the kitchen, while my helper stayed down the hallway with a baby monitor between our rooms; that way, if I awakened in pain during the night I could call for her. As she was helping me get ready for bed, I noticed a large slatted wood plaque hanging on my bedroom wall—this is an actual photo of that very plaque—and I admired it. It was a calligraphy of Joshua 1:9, where God says, 

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

I remember being comforted by that verse as my friend put me to bed, raised me up on my side, and tucked pillows behind me, getting me as comfortable as possible with my pain. She left and closed the door on her way out. As she went down the hallway, I almost called for her to come back and leave the door ajar. But then again, if I did need her I could call her in her room using the monitor on my bedside table. So I drifted off to sleep.

At one a.m. I was jolted awake by excruciating pain. It happens a lot at night, given that I don’t move and must lay in one position. In the dark I could see the tiny green light on the monitor, so I called softly for my friend to come help me reposition my hips. When she did not respond, I called again. Then a little louder. I reasoned to myself, “She must be sleeping very soundly.” So I yelled, but no answer.

After a few minutes my pain was really piercing. I said, “Lord, I’m never going to make it until morning, lying here in this position in so much pain! Please help me wake her up!”

That’s when, in the dark, I drew a deep breath and I screamed, “Help! Help me!” The house was silent.

Now my heart was racing, because I was in terrible trouble, lying paralyzed in one position, stiff, knowing that morning was hours away. But before panic seized me, I recalled that promise on the slatted wood plaque, Joshua 1:9. So I prayed, “Jesus, it’s a promise. You tell me to be strong and courageous, and You’re going to be with me. I need You to make good on this verse. Please keep anxiety away and help me to have courage.”

My head scrambled to remember other promises, and suddenly Psalm 18:6 popped to mind. (I’m so grateful for all the verses I know by heart.) It says, 

In my distress I called out to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.

Well, being one who takes the Bible literally, God was telling me here to cry out to Him. So, lying in bed on my side and facing the wall, I cried out every Bible promise I could think of. I screamed them, hoping that my helper would hear me. “Lord, You are my ever present help in this trouble! Your grace,” I’m screaming, “is sufficient! Your name, Jesus, is a strong tower!”

But still no answer. No response from my helper. Keeping as calm as I could, I continued to call out, cry out to God for help, screaming to Him. 

God, You will keep me in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee! (Isa. 26:3)

The one who stands firm to the end will be saved! (Matt. 10:22)

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. (Ps. 116:1)

I’m blaring out these promises for nearly an hour, and my lungs were beginning to get tired. It would have been so easy for me to panic, but I encouraged myself. I strengthened myself in the Lord, knowing that if He chose not to wake up my helper—because we have a sovereign God, don’t we?—then He would give me enough grace to get me through until morning.

This is kind of what it means to strengthen yourself in the Lord, right? First Samuel 30 speaks of David being greatly distressed, but it says that he strengthened himself in the Lord, he reminded himself of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty and that He always comes through on His Word. So that’s what I did.

I was also bolstered remembering the many, many, many thousands of people with disabilities in other parts of the world who live in constant pain who have no one to help them. Who am I in the middle of the night to think that I’m above them? It was a humbling thought. So I put it to rest. If my helper down the hallway could not be awakened, God would help me through the watches of the night.

Before my strength gave out entirely and I just gave up, I yelled one more promise. “God is for me, never against me!”

Just then, I heard a click on the monitor. I looked at the digital clock on the ceiling; it was almost two o’ clock in the morning. I heard footsteps running up the hallway. My helper burst into the room, breathless, apologizing, and explaining that she had set the volume too low on the monitor. She quickly repositioned me. She thought I would be angry, but I told her it was okay, because God had given me what He promised in Joshua 1:9; He gave me an abiding assurance of His presence as well as His courage.

When all was settled, she left to go back to her room, but I did tell her to leave the door open and test the volume on the monitor.

What a night! But I went back to sleep feeling so grateful. God had given me a chance to prove—that’s what happened that night; I’d proved the trustworthiness of my Savior. Every time we trust His promises, we have this glorious opportunity to testify to His goodness, to show that we are pleased with His sovereign plan, no matter how painful or bizarre it seems at the time. Trusting in His Word keeps us from being spiteful, nit-picky, angry, judgmental. I mean, I guess I could have barked at my helper, you know? Some might have said I’d be justified in snapping at her. But that would have nullified completely, it would have canceled any good accomplished with those promises. My efforts would have meant nothing.

So, the cosmic stakes are raised, and they are raised high, when we cling to Bible promises in our suffering, because all of heaven, all of the angelic host, all the powers and principalities in the unseen world—yes, even demons—all of them are standing on tiptoe, intensely interested in whether you will believe what God has promised or not. 

They want to see whether you’ll say yes to His Word and say no to fear, doubt, anxiety, complaining, grumbling, nit-picking, discouragement. I mean, suffering really does raise the stakes on God’s glory, because (get this) the harder it is to trust God in great pain or affliction, the more glory you give Him when you appropriate His promises.

Listen, all of heaven and hell are aware that when you are hurting badly it is no small matter to believe God’s Word. But oh does it raise the wattage on His glory! It makes His glory absolutely dazzle and shine when you live on His promises as I just described, for you are honoring what Jesus did on the cross. Our Jesus—that marvelous man—He died to provide you the grace to live on His promises.

So, what can I say? That night at the lake house illustrates the actual way to appropriate, to live on God’s Word. Perhaps without all the screaming, although it might be warranted at times, since God commands us to literally call out to Him for help. It’s how you get beyond merely coping or adjusting to a hard situation. It’s how you move past resigning or submitting yourself to your hardships; it’s how you go beyond accepting affliction to actually embracing it. That’s when it becomes a place of testimony.

Honestly, a flood of courage, a pouring-out of grace and blessings, can be yours in exchange for each promise that You bring before the throne of God. The Lord provides His promises so that we might bring each one to Him in exchange for the grace and blessings which they guarantee.

I’m going to repeat that. Write it down, ladies. God wants to bless you, He wants you to have His courage, so He provides His promises in order that we might bring each one of them to Him in exchange for the grace and blessings which they guarantee.

Many people, however, do not know how to make that exchange. We think we are living on Bible promises when we commit them to memory, embroider them, upload them as a screensaver, post them on Instagram, purchase them as smartphone covers, share them on Facebook. We fix them in our view, in our line of sight, as though that were enough. But that’s not exchanging them. That’s not waking up in the morning knowing you have problems ahead but deciding to actually live on His Word for the day. So God will give you a little help by placing you in valleys of affliction where all your emotional supports are kicked out from under you. When God brings suffering, it is natural to panic, it’s natural to harbor doubts, but you, you’re God’s treasured possession. 

You are a blood-bought believer; you live on a supernatural plane; and you can say to your big problems, “Okay, you think you’re going to choke all hope out of me? Well, my God is a lot bigger than you, problem! Because the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Certainly not you! The Lord is my salvation, so Jesus, save me, deliver me, rescue me! Come to my aid! You, the Lord, are my light; it’s a promise. Jesus, shine light on this problem and help me find my way through it.” I mean, that’s the way to talk to your soul, to your pain and disappointment.

Or, let’s say you’re facing an impossible situation with your finances, your job, your health. You could say, “Jesus, You said so yourself: with man this is impossible, but with You all things are possible. I don’t see how You’re going to unravel all of this, but You do. My feelings say that You’re asking way too much of me, but obviously You think You’re not, so I’m going to trust You and not my feelings, because You promise that with You, Jesus, all things are possible.”

This is what it sounds like to live on the promises of God, the Word of God. I’ll tell you a secret (it’s a really great one). In 1 Corinthians 10:13 (listen to this!) it says, 

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out, so that you can endure it.

Friend, God promises that every temptation—that is, every time you want to doubt, every time you feel like caving in to suffering, every time you’re tempted to think God’s not being good or you want to become discouraged—those temptations, according to 1 Corinthians 10:13, come with a way out, so that you can endure them. Exactly what is that way out (or way of escape, as some translations put it)? The way out that God gives, again, are His promises. That’s the way out God is giving you. His promises are the way to overcome the temptation to be demoralized, discouraged, doubtful of God’s goodness, fearful of the future, and the rest. 

You could paraphrase 1 Corinthians 10:13 to read, “God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted to throw in the towel when you think your suffering is beyond what you can bear, but when you’re tempted to doubt Him, He will provide a way of escape through any promise—you pick it—for it is these rock-solid assurances of grace and blessing that will cause you to endure.”

Friend, that is the Christian, that’s the biblical way to live, the righteous way to live.

Look, I know when I am overwhelmed by pain I cling to Psalm 119:92: “If Your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” At night in the lake house, I did not perish in my affliction, all because of God’s law, His words, His promises. They are my delight.

I have made Psalm 119:140 my motto: 

O God, Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and Your servant loves them. 

I test them and I love them, because when you thoroughly test His Word, when you bring Bible promises to the throne in exchange for the blessings and the grace that they guarantee, you cannot help but fall in love with the Word. The law becomes your delight. But please, do not think that this exchange is easy. If it were, there would be no need for faith, right? 

People often ask how I manage my pain. Well, it is most difficult at night, such as that time up at the lake house. Honestly, what I described—waking up at one a.m.—that pretty much happens every night. So when the sharp teeth of pain sink deep into my hips and back, I begin deep breathing, slow and steady, and when I cannot get comfortable even after being repositioned, when pain threatens to consume me just as the flames threatened to consume Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in that fiery furnace in the book of Daniel, I don’t say to my pain, “Man, I hate this! I can’t stand it; it’s killing me,” or “I just can’t do this. I’m so tired of this. I can’t live like this.” 

No. I’ve trained myself never to talk that way, and you should do the same. It’s the way the devil would want you to talk. Such words are filled with worry and fear and anxiety, and fear only makes things worse. Instead, I calmly bring before God’s throne a Bible promise. It could be—let’s see—2 Corinthians 4:8: “Though we are hard pressed on all sides, we are not crushed.” That is a powerful promise, because pain can press you hard on all sides, tempting you to think that you’re about to be crushed, like the apostle Paul said about his troubles. In 2 Corinthians he said he was under great pressure, far beyond his ability to endure.

I’m sure you’ve felt that way, but God promises. He stakes His life on the fact that my pain will never damage my soul. Jesus died so that pain might never damage my soul, and that’s why I can bring that nasty pain before the throne, asking Jesus to meet me in it, to not let it crush me. So the Son of God never fails to meet me, just as He met Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in that hot furnace of fire. 

What does Jesus say to me in that agonizing place? He says, “Joni, I’m so glad you remembered 2 Corinthians 4:8. It delights me when you come to me with your pain, and honey, it’s not going to crush you. I’m here; I’m with you; don’t worry. 

When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isa. 43:2–3)

Sweetheart, I made you, and I will carry you. I will sustain you, and I will rescue you.”

Those are His exact words from Isaiah 43 and 46. Those are the words of the one who took the bullet for my sins, so why wouldn’t I trust Him in my worst pain? There’s nothing more heavenly than finding Jesus Christ in the middle of my hell. I might not get delivered from my pain, but in it I always find my deliverer. I might not get healed, but I always find sweet fellowship with my Healer. My pain may not go away, but I have His courage, and I come out of that fiery furnace better for the experience, for I am the happy recipient of His glorious exchange.

By now I think you’re beginning to realize something, and I think you know where I am going with this, because all of these Bible promises, these thousands of precious, not-to-be-doubted assurances that help us live as we should, each one, all of them, find fulfillment in Jesus Christ. When you and I take a promise from God’s Word and bring it before the throne, God answers because of Jesus. God gives grace because of Jesus. He pours out blessing because of Jesus. Every promise is wrapped up in Him. Second Corinthians 1:20 says, 

For all the promises of God . . . are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.

God promises you life and life abundant, life joyful, life courageous and meaningful, life that’s rich with peace and power and glory to God, all because Jesus made the way. He is your way out. He is your way of escape. He promises that when you are tempted. Maybe at one time you were God’s enemy, but no, through Jesus Christ God is ready to lavish on you all grace and blessing as a way of showing you how much He loves His Son. Every time you live on a blood-bought promise from the Bible, it is your way of testifying to 2 Corinthians 1:20, it is your way of saying, “Amen! So be it! Thank You, Jesus! May the way I rely on Your Word bring You ever-increasing glory to our Father.”

Hear me on this: you can look deeply into the stern countenance of your worst suffering and you can enter into it unafraid. You can enter the deepest and most horrific recesses of the affliction and you can defang it of all of its terror. You can do it because the Lord Jesus has gone ahead of you into that awful place—that place of cancer, that place of stroke, of a failed marriage, that place of financial ruin, Lyme’s disease, rejection, disability, chronic pain—whatever! Jesus has gone ahead of you, and He’s entered it, and He has transfigured it to be the inner sanctum of sharing in His sweetest fellowship of suffering, that glorious place of wonderful union with Him.

The next time you go through hell, remember that Jesus has gone ahead of it and already entered it, and you can meet Him in it and not be crushed. It’s just one of His many promises you can rely on.

Nancy Wolgemuth has written an excellent book called Heaven Rules, and I love what she says about it. She says, “‘Heaven rules’ is active theology. It goes with us into our day. We pack it for the road, we keep it in our carry-on baggage, we pull it out and use it all the time.” 

That’s what I do. Daily I pull out the promises of God and I use them. They give shape and definition to not only my life in general but they give specific shape to my days. I wake up and have to choose a Bible promise to live on for the day. 

Let’s say I feel weak and in need of strength. I could choose 2 Chronicles 16: 

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. (v. 9)

Then throughout the day I’m aware that God is working to strengthen me.

Or if I’m in physical pain, for the day I could choose Psalm 34:

 The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all. (v. 19)

Then all day long I rely on God to deliver me, reflecting on Psalm 34.

I dare not think that just because I’m saved Jesus will give me what I need for the day. It doesn’t work that way. The manna you fed on yesterday is already rotten. It’s not there to rely on. So God’s Word in your carry-on baggage, as Nancy would say. It is your way of constantly, daily feeding on that Word, living on His promises. I shared earlier this is the Christian way to live. A promise a day keeps me from falling into a vague, ambiguous approach to life. A daily promise becomes a plumb line for my attitudes and actions. Starting every morning with a Bible promise adds such value to my day, helping me make the most of my opportunities, build character, glorify God. Everything about life must be a yes in Christ, yes and amen. All the promises that God has ever made find their fulfillment in Jesus.

You know, aging with a severe disability is not easy, and it’s getting harder every day. My bones are so thin and tired, my lungs are weak. So perhaps the most hopeful promises are in Isaiah 35. That glorious day when the lame shall leap like deer, when sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and the anointed of the Lord shall obtain joy and gladness; that day when everlasting joy is going to crown our heads; that day when He will dry every tear, when there will be no more night. Praise God, no more nights of pain! I love those hope-filled promises. 

That glorious day of Jesus Christ will be so astonishing; it’s going to be so wonderful that it will suffice for all your worst sufferings! That glorious appearing of Jesus will atone for every one of your hurts; it will suffice for all your heartaches. Jesus is going to look at you and say to all the multitudes and to the heavenly host—He’s going to put His arm around you and He’s going to say, “You see this one? See her? Let me show you how she lived on my promises. Let me push the rewind button so you can see how she kept hold of my word, even in the face of great discouragement. I tell you, here is one who trusted me.”

Then He’s going to turn to you and say, “Well done, my precious little girl. Now enter into the joy that I have prepared for you, for you are my treasured possession and you have won my heart.”

I want to hear that, don’t you? I don’t want to do anything sinful or foolish or slothful down here on earth that might minimize that moment. If anything, I want to enlarge that moment with more confidence in Christ and in God’s Word. I want to enter into the greatest possible joy that my master might have for me, and I want the same for you. Jesus is ecstasy beyond compare, and when you hold fast to God’s promises it makes a difference for all of eternity.

Second Corinthians 4:17 speaks of that enlargement of joy. “For your light and momentary affliction [if you would but trust Christ in it] is producing for you an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison.” (NASB)

Applying God’s promises to your suffering produces, it grows, it enlarges your weight of glory in heaven; and I want you to look at Jesus and quote to Him directly from Psalm 119. “Ah, Jesus, this blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept Your precepts!”

God forbid that you and I should waste our salvation by wandering our way aimlessly into the future, like, “Okay, so I’m saved; whatever.” Don’t go through life with a vague, ambiguous approach to problems. Do not diminish your eternal estate with a mediocrity that relegates God’s promises to nothing more than a slogan on a T-shirt. Life’s too short for that. Cosmic stakes are too high. The blood of Jesus is certainly too precious. 

One day your faith isn’t going to matter. Your chance to believe will be over. The opportunity your suffering will have provided you will be a thing of the past, and in a flash you’ll be with Christ, standing before your Savior, surrounded by the angelic hosts, pressing in line with the great possession of saved, streaming through gates of pearl, an infinite cavalcade from earth’s wide bounds and oceans’ farthest coasts—all of us, in one joyous parade, countless generations, lifting our crowns before God and shouting, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!”

I want to work toward that day, strive toward that moment. I want to be able to look at my Savior and quote to Him Psalm 119: “Jesus, Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them” (v. 140).

Aim high, friend. Aim high in life. Enlarge your soul’s capacity for greatness in the kingdom by living on God’s Word, living on His promises now. Join me in that, would you? Tomorrow wake up weak and needy, relying on a promise of God and saying, “I cannot do this hard thing in front of me, but I can do all things through You, Jesus Christ, as Your strength in me.”

Right there is a good promise to get started on tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Be the one who thoroughly tests His promises, and come to love them as you love your Lord. It is your pathway to genuine joy and more intimate friendship with the Savior. That is a promise. God bless you, and thanks for listening.

All Scripture is taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted.