Victorious Living Through God’s Empowering Grace
Recently, I discovered a man that inspired me to never choose excuses, a defeated life, or mediocrity because of a disability. Sometimes when people are born with a disability or unexpectedly develop a disability, they choose excuses, defeat, and mediocrity as a lifestyle. These options could have easily been true for Nick Vujicic. However, he chose a different path.
Nick Vujicic was born without limbs (only feet with a total of two toes) because of a rare disease called autosomal recessive tetra-amelia. When he was ten, he considered taking his life by drowning because he felt very different from others and thought he had no purpose for living. After pondering the damage his death would cause his loving parents, he overcame that moment and never looked back. Through his faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Nick allowed God’s grace to define him instead of his disability.
Nick would be the first to admit that even though he chose to live through faith in God, it didn’t mean he would never desire arms and legs. Nick has testified on many occasions about how he desired arms and legs. In a presentation at Saddleback Church in California, he recalled a time when on a farm in a jungle in India, he and dozens of his Christian friends once prayed for 90 minutes for his arms and legs. His friends made arms and legs with clay and prayed that they would turn into flesh and bone. Nick didn’t receive arms and legs, but he did receive peace from God and His approval of Nick’s belief in the power of prayer. Nick resolved: “If you don’t give me arms and legs, I trust You.” In his commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, he stated a desire “to want His plan, and not my plan…even when I don’t understand.”
Even though Nick has no limbs, God has used him for His glory (1 Cor. 10:31). As an evangelist and chairman of a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on reaching the lost through student ministry, prayer ministry, digital ministry, live outreach ministry, and prison ministry; he has spoken in at least sixty countries and reached over 733 million people with at least one million saved (since 2005). These accomplishments magnify God’s power, grace, and mercy working in Nick’s life for His glory. Without God’s grace at work in Nick’s life, he would be relegated to a life of excuses, defeat, and mediocrity.
However, Nick’s life is far from a place of excuses, defeat, and mediocrity. Nick is a husband (Kanae Miyahara), father to four children (boys: Kiyoshi and Dejan/girls: Olivia and Ellie [twins]), film producer, actor, author, and athlete [he swims, surfs, skydives, and plays golf and soccer—see pictures below]).
After reading and watching videos about Nick’s life, I pondered the possible lessons that his life offers about living victoriously instead of living with excuses, defeat, and mediocrity. His life and victory over unfavorable circumstances teach us to begin with God, to understand how God wants to use us despite our disabilities and insufficiencies, and to trust that God has a divine plan for our lives that He works out through empowering grace.
Begin with God. Nick states: “If you don’t know the truth, then you can’t be free because then you’ll believe the lies are true. But once we realize that when we read the Word of God, and you know the truth of who you are, then I’m not a man without arms and legs. I am a child of God.”
When we begin our lives with God, we are exposed to God’s truths about us. This information can become a game changer in our lives. Why? If we don’t begin our lives with God, we may begin with falsities from others who seek to define us by our disabilities and insufficiencies. Instead of allowing others to define us, we should allow God to define us through what He has shared about us in His Word. Through God’s Word, we learn that He loves us (John 3:16), doesn’t condemn us (Romans 8:1), resides in us (1 Cor. 6:19), transforms us (2 Cor. 5:17), uses us (1 Tim. 1:12-14), and gives us victory (Rom. 8:37). God expects us to know the truth about ourselves and allow that truth to compel us in fulfilling His plan for our lives.
God can use us despite our disabilities. Even though Nick Vujicic has no arms or legs, he believes that God gave him a smile to connect with people and assist him in honoring His call on his life. Nick testified: “…People are touched just by my smile. It’s important to be open to how God wants to use us.”
Sometimes people think their inabilities and limitations are excuses that God will accept for not doing His will. As God called Moses, His servant thought God would accept his inability to speak well as an excuse for not answering His assignment to speak to Pharoah and lead God’s people out of the wilderness and into the promised land. God quickly countered Moses’ excuse by assuring Moses of His ability as the divine Creator of human flesh (Ex. 4:11-12). He also reassured Moses with divine assistance by using Aaron as Moses’ mouthpiece (Ex. 4:14-16). We must never forget that when God chooses us, He will equip and supply us with every resource needed to accomplish the task(s) He has assigned us.
Trust God’s plan for your life. Speaking about the power of God’s plan and purpose for a person’s life, Nick Vujicic offered the following testimony: “No matter who that child is, no matter what the doctors say, God has a plan. When God says He’s got a good plan, He can take whatever we have and use it for good….You got to trust in God. And that’s the pinnacle and epiphany of faith—to understand that only God can do that. Only God can use the man without arms and legs to be His hands and feet and call him to stand in front of the gates of Hell and redirect traffic.”
Sometimes people with disabilities and insufficiencies can rest in purposeless living as they resign to a thought process that doesn’t include God’s purpose for their lives. No matter our disabilities and shortcomings, God has a plan for our lives. God works His divine plan by empowering us through His grace. Through Paul’s life, we learn that before we leave the womb, God’s grace is already working in our lives (Gal. 1:15). Paul also teaches us that despite our shortcomings and terrible past, the Lord calls us by His grace (1 Tim. 1:12-14). In 1 Corinthians 15:10-11, Paul teaches us that we should keep living and ministering through the divine empowerment of God’s grace. If we take this approach, we can live victoriously through God’s empowering grace.
Thus, our goal should be, to begin with God, to know that He can use us despite our disabilities, and to trust that He has a plan for our lives. Consider how God wants to use you! Respond by co-laboring with Him (1 Cor. 3:9) in fulfilling His plan for your life.
