A Crazy But True Formula

Are you struggling?

Rejoice...the trials are only a testing of your faith

in order to cause you to

Persevere...

in order to

MAKE YOU LIKE JESUS!


The unlikely formula is

Trials + Perservance = Becoming more like Jesus

Sometimes God’s best answers to prayer are “no” because, if indeed we received everything that we prayed for, all our wants and wishes and heart’s desires, I just don’t think it would be God’s best for our life. Let me share with you a quick story. I remember when I was in the hospital many, many years ago. I used to imagine myself in the Gospel of John, Chapter 5, lying at the Pool of Bethesda where all the other disabled, sick and lame were asking Jesus to heal them. I used to picture myself there pleading with the Lord not to forget me. “Don’t pass me by, Lord. Here I am. Heal me.”

As many times as I prayed when I was in the hospital, and read John Chapter 5, my hands and my feet never got the message. I never got healed. Well, many years later, my husband, Ken, and I had a chance to visit Israel and we spent a whole day touring Jerusalem. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at the Pool of Bethesda and as soon as I saw those old ruins, I turned to Ken and went, “Ken, you won’t believe it. I remember decades ago when I was hospital, I used to picture myself here and I used to imaging myself asking God to heal me and He never did."

But you know what? I’m so glad God didn’t because the “no” answer to a prayer for healing has meant a more urgent leaning upon Him every day, a more vibrant hope of heaven, a deeper sense of prayer, a more energetic love for His Word. It's fostered my friendships, and deepened my concern and compassion for others who hurt. It’s helped me start this ministry, Joni & Friends, to other people with disabilities.

I could go on and on recounting all the glorious good things that have happened in my life and in the life of others all because God said “no” to an answer to prayer. It wasn’t until I was sitting there, leaning on the guardrail and looking at the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda a few years ago, that I realized how wonderful it is that God sometimes says “no.”

By Joni Erickson Tada