Answers
By BGEA Admin • February 28, 2022 • Topics: Suffering
Q:
I have a neighbor who has physical challenges. She can do little for herself and yet she is one of the happiest people I’ve ever known. I am a Christian also, but I do not have the kind of faith she demonstrates. While she is bound to a wheelchair, she never fails to say that she looks to the Lord for her strength every day and says that she mounts up with wings like an eagle. I know that is a Bible verse, but what does it mean?
A:
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
The eagle is the only bird that can lock its wings and wait for the right wind. He waits for the updraft, then soars. So as we wait on God He will help us use the adversities and strong winds to benefit us! The Bible says, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
The daughter of a former governor of a province in China once wrote, “Throughout my many years of illness, I have never dared to ask God why He allowed me to suffer so long. I only ask what He wants me to do.”
For the Christian, we must learn to turn our impatience into trust, and our fear of the future into quiet acceptance of God’s will, because our lives are in His hands.
Christians can rejoice in the midst of difficulties and even persecution because they have eternity’s values in view. When the pressures are on, they look beyond their present predicament to the glories of Heaven. The thought of the future life with its prerogatives and joys helps to make the trials of the present seem light and transient.
(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)
