God Can Use Your Trials to Minister to Others — Here’s How
By Movieguide® Contributor
Speaker and author Nona Jones joined the DUCK DYNASTY star Sadie Robertson Huff’s “WHOA That’s Good” to talk about how God can use any situation — no matter how tragic — to minister to others.
Jones’ first foray into ministry came during college when her roommate returned from a party crying and stayed in bed for days.
“I wasn’t sure what was going on, but one day, I overheard her crying, and I just asked, ‘What’s going on? What happened?’ She confided in me that she had gone to a party. She was assaulted at the party,” she recalled.
At that moment, Jones wasn’t sure where her roommate was at in her faith, but she urged her to lean on the Lord.
“I can promise you that God is good, and this situation is not, but God is good, and I need you just to hang in there,” Jones remembered telling her before sharing her own story with her friend.
Jones grew up with a mother who “regularly reminded me she didn’t want me as a child.” At the age of 5, her mom’s boyfriend began sexually abusing her until he was arrested when she was 7. The abuse continued, though, after he was released from jail. Her mother also became physically and emotionally abusive towards her, and Jones attempted to take her own life at the ages of 9 and 11.
But eventually, God came in and redeemed her life.
“It was sharing my story that actually ended up giving her hope, and so what I realize now is my ministry is vulnerability,” she told Huff. “So, I will stand in front of a room of 8,000 people, and I will share my story because every time I do, people come up to me and they say, ‘That happened to me. I’ve never told anyone. I thought I was the only one.'”
“I believe that one of the tactics of the enemy is to make you believe that you are defective, you are deficient, something is wrong with you, you are damaged goods. When he can get us in kind of that doom spiral, what happens is God will have a purpose on your life. You will disqualify yourself…It’s the exact thing that you think disqualifies you that qualifies you,” Jones explained.
That mindset propelled Jones to write her newest book, The Gift of Rejection.
A synopsis of the book reads:
…the Gift of Rejection is a practical guide offering a new, unconventional framework for rejection; instead of being a pain to heal, it becomes a teacher to learn from. Nona shares insightful research, practical steps, and powerful stories from her own life as well as the lives of Bible characters and modern-day trailblazers to help you:
- Identify the root of rejection and how it’s manifesting in your life
- Pinpoint when the pain of rejection is triggering you and counter it with truth
- Respond to rejection with resilience and resolve rather than fear and defeat
- Anchor your identity in who God is calling you to be
READ MORE: Sadie Robertson Huff CELEBRATES MAJOR PODCAST MILESTONE
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