Evangelist Nick Vujicic, who spoke at Saddleback Church
in Calif. on Sunday, was born with neither arms nor legs, and questioned
God for eight years why it was so. The answer changed his life, and
through him that of tens of thousands of others.
For the now 30-year-old Nick, founding president and CEO of the
nonprofit organization Life Without Limbs, the most important thing in life was to understand why God made him without arms and legs.
Speaking
at Pastor Rick Warren's church in Lake Forest on Sunday evening, the
inspirational speaker said he spent eight years asking God, "Why? Why
was I born this way? I don't understand how can You say You love me when
You allow me to stay in this pain."
Vujicic, who has been living in
California
since 2007, was born in Brisbane, Australia. His parents – Pastor Boris
Vujicic and nurse Dushka Vujicic – were not given any medical
explanation or warning about his birth with neither arms nor legs. But
Nick got the answer to his desperate prayers.
John 9:1-3 spoke to
him in a special way. The New Testament portion reads: "As he (Jesus)
went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'
'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this
happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.'"
The Life Without Limbs author
described his feelings after reading these verses. "I got goosebumps on
my skin I don't even have," he told the congregants. "And I had faith
because I understood something. You see, all I wanted to know was that
God knew what He was doing with me."
By the age of 19, Nick started to fulfill his dream of being able to
encourage other people and bring them the Gospel of Jesus through
motivational speaking and sharing his testimony about how God changed
his life and gave him a future and a hope.
The desire to have arms
and legs has remained, Vujicic admitted. Initially, he thought, "Lord,
if you give me arms and legs, I'll go around the world and share your
power with the world." He said he still has ups and downs in life. "I am
just like you."
Vujicic said he has failed God every single day,
but has relies on Philippians 1:6: "Being confident of this, that he who
began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day
of Christ Jesus."
Vujicic recalled he and dozens of his Christian
friends once prayed for 90 minutes for his arms and legs in a farm in a
jungle in
India. They made arms and legs with clay, and prayed it turn into flesh and bone. It didn't happen, but he had
peace
in his heart as he saw an eagle soaring in the sky throughout those 90
minutes. He said it was as if God was smiling, and was happy he had the
faith to pray.
"Please give me arms and legs. But if You don't
give me arms and legs, I trust You." This has been Vujicic's prayer. He
said his commitment to Jesus is "to want His plan, and not my plan ...
even when I don't understand."
You are praying for something, but
what if God says "no" to that? he asked. "Is He still God? Yes. Will He
waste your pain? No." He quoted Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been
called according to his purpose."
Vujicic, who has traveled around
the world, sharing his story with millions of people, said he's
grateful to God for saving him from the two biggest disabilities: sin
and death.
He said when he was 10 he wanted to commit suicide, and
wanted to see someone like him so that he wouldn't be alone. Five years
ago in California, he finally met a baby named Daniel, who too was born
without arms and legs ... "exactly like me." "Not getting a miracle, I
can be a miracle to Daniel ... an older brother of Daniel his whole life
... encourage him."
Nick said if he truly lived without arms and legs throughout his life "just so I can hug Daniel in heaven, it's all worth it."
"I
found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my
circumstance. There's a purpose for why you're in the fire," he says on
his ministry's website. "If God can use a man without arms and legs to
be His hands and feet, then He will certainly use any willing heart!"
source: christianpost
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