God's Grace is Sufficient

I have found that when God wants to imprint a truth in my heart, He tells the truth to me in different ways through out my day or week. He did this for me last week. God told me in 2Corinthians 12:9: “My Grace is sufficient”. He wants me to hide this word in my heart so that it will be readily available for me when I need it.

In this scripture passage, God was responding to Paul who was praying to have an infirmary removed from his flesh. God always hears our prayers. He, sometimes, answers them in ways that we don’t understand at the time. When He doesn’t take away our pain or difficulty, He gives us the strength to face and walk through our problems.

In The New Living Translation, verses 8-10 relate Paul’s plea and God’s response: “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said to me ‘My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weakness and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

As seen in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, God views our actions differently than does the world. He honors a humble, loving spirit. Proverbs 8:10 says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When we believe in, respect, and honor God, He gives us the gifts of the Spirit, enabling us to be strong in Him, not in our own flesh. We are in the world, not of the world. Knowing God and the scriptures give us a different, a Kingdom, perspective to our lives and our circumstances. When those who don’t understand where we are coming from look down at us or persecute us, God is our strength. His Grace is sufficient. I pray for wisdom and boldness in that knowledge.

God is the Great “I AM”. Because I believe HE IS, I pray for the strength to be obedient and to do what “I MUST”. As Christians, we are overcomers because of His power within us. We are sealed by The Holy Spirit. He will protect and defend those whom He seals. His Grace is sufficient, His Grace rests upon us, and His Grace reveals His Glory in and through us. 2Corinthians 4:7 says, “But this precious treasure - this light and power that now shines within us - is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own”.

Grace is the power of God to do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves. It is God’s unmerited favor in each of His children’s lives. We do not earn His grace nor do we deserve it. Grace is free. Salvation and Faith are God’s freely given gifts to us. God’s grace and the plan of Salvation in Christ is told throughout the scriptures. Ephesians 2:6-10 says, “In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus. For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do”.

There is purpose in each of our lives. Have you yet discovered the good deeds which He has already planned for you? Let us be bold in our faith. Read God’s word, listen for His directions, stand out in faith and obedience, and see what He has planned for you. He rewards us and blesses us when we diligently seek Him. You can underestimate your own power, but never underestimate the sufficiency and power of His Grace within you.

HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT!