My Grace is Sufficient

"My grace is sufficient for you." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Grace - God's unmerited favor.  It took me over 30 years of being a Christian before I began to fully undertand God's grace.  It is unlimited!  It is sufficient!  It is enough!

Charles Spurgeon wrote about grace in his book, Strengthen My Spirit.  He wrote:

          If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace.  When we find the wanderer who does not have a place to lay his head, who yet can say, "Still will I trust in the Lord"; when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh what honor it reflects on the gospel.  God's grace is is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring - that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as He is pleased to keep them in it.  This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. 

Spurgeon goes on to say, "He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trails...As for His (God's) failing you, never dream of it - hate the thought.  The God who has been sufficient until now should be trusted to the end."

Grace.  It is tried in the trials of life.  If it does not seem sufficient, it is not the grace of God that failed, but the person who didn't understand or chose to not believe.  Grace.  It is sufficient by its very definition and its Giver.  God is all sufficient.  I have found grace to deal with daily, difficult pain with spina bifida and fibromyalgia.  I once cried out to God, "God, I can't do this for the next 20 years, the next 5 years, the next month."  He replied, "I didn't ask you to.  I ask you only to get through today.  My grace is sufficient."  And it has been.  One day at a time.  I have found rest and comfort in His arms.  The pain remains, but knowing that it is temporary not eternal, and that God will get me through each day is enough.  I can rejoice that I need Him daily.  I can rejoice that I know His comfort in the midst.  I can rejoice that it is just for today, today.  His grace is sufficient.  I know His grace the most when I go to my closet and get down on my knees and dance before my Father in heaven.  He accepts me.  He loves me.  That's grace!  What joy!

Are you in a trial?  Does God seem far away?  Are you wondering if your dreams will ever come true?  The answer is still Jesus because Jesus is God's grace personified.  Jesus is God's love for you.  Jesus is the answer.  God to Him.  He will walk through your trial with you.  He will be by your side.  He will change your dreams to better ones, dreams more lasting.  Study God's grace, pray for an understanding of God's grace.  His grace is sufficient for you.

Hint for the day: Read great biographies of the faith to your children.  Joni, Bruchko, The Hiding Place, The Foxe's Book of Martyrs, etc...  These stories show us God's grace in people's lives.  They remind us that we serve the same God and that He will give us grace in the time of our need.  These saints show us that God's grace was sufficient in the most horrendous of circumstances: paralysis, the German concentration camps, the cannibalistic tries of South America, but God's grace is sufficient.  Share with your children acts and moments of grace in your life.  Pray that God will reveal these to you to share.  His grace is there for every Christian in times of trials and in times of great joy.