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Ankerberg: We’ve talked about depression; we’ve talked about discouragement; we’ve
talked about suffering. I want to come back to discouragement. When you learned that your
neck was broke and your injuries were permanent, you’re 17. When you learn for the rest of
your life everything had changed. You hit the brick wall; it’s not going to change;
it’s probably only going to get worse. I don’t think of any bigger discouragement
than that. And I’m saying this, folks, because some of you, you’re there. You’re so discouraged.
How do they come out of that, Joni? What’s God’s answer?
Tada: We haven’t mentioned hope yet on this program, and yet the Bible overflows with
words of hope. For me, a hopeful passage was from Isaiah 35, “Then one day the eyes of
the blind will be opened; the ears of the deaf unstopped; the tongues of those who can’t
speak are going to shout for joy, and the lame shall leap like deer.” Oh, my goodness,
quadriplegia’s not forever! And that’s why, according to Philippians 3, I eagerly—I
love that adverb—eagerly await my Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will come and transform
this lowly body to be like His glorious body. And I hope I can take this wheelchair with
me to heaven, because if I could—I know it’s not theologically correct—but if
I could, I’d put it right there and I’d say, “Jesus, do You see that thing? You
were right when You said that in this world we’d have trouble, because that thing was
so much trouble. But, Lord Jesus, the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on
You; and the harder I lean on You, the stronger I discovered You to be.” Oh, my goodness!
“Thank You for Your wisdom,” I mean, even that I’m a quadriplegic and not a paraplegic,
because it causes me to lean on Jesus, very hard, and that’s, to me, very hopeful.