Sufficient Grace...

A friend on our Army Board is dealing with a debilitating chronic illness…she really is physically hurting most of her waking hours and when she sleeps it’s often interrupted or she just can’t sleep. Her son has been held over in Baghdad after already being there a year. The disappointment and sadness at not having him return after the year was up, I’m sure, affects her physically as well as emotionally.

The amazing thing to me is that she continues having such joy in her postings. She’s hurting and being prodded and poked and is facing surgery and yet the joy of the Lord just shines through her.

The verse in 2 Cor 12:9 is lived out in her life: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I love to dig into words so I wanted to know what sufficient really means. Right off the top of my head I think sufficient means “it’s enough.” But looking at Vine's it shows that not only is it enough, but we will be satisfied and content. Sometimes when I sit down to a good meal, I want enough of the food to satisfy my hunger, but I also want to be at a place where I can say “Ok, I don’t need any more. I’m full, it was delicious and I don’t crave any more of that good taste.” I’m content.

God will give us the grace to go through our difficulties to the degree that we can say “I’m content. His grace has completely satisfied me.”

Another interesting word that is translated “perfect” actually means “to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end” and “add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full.” God’s power is fully and completely shown and perfected in weakness.

God is promising Paul that even though He won’t take away the thorn in the flesh as he has implored the Lord to do, that His grace will be so completely enough for him that he, Paul, will be satisfied. God so desired for Paul to know Him as deeply as He could that anything less than this trial would mean He couldn’t show Him that aspect of His character.

Paul's response is exactly what ours should be. "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me...for when I am weak, then I am strong." 12:9-10

Why would we want to live our lives in our own puny power, when God has promised His power to be alive and active in our lives? We can welcome weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties because through those we will know first hand God's awesome, inherent power; the power that created the universe, the power that raised Christ from the dead, the power that holds the sun in the sky and the earth in perfect rotation; and the power of all the miracles He performs in our lives.

That’s an amazing thing to me – that the God of the universe wants us to know Him so deeply and completely, that the trials He brings our way are often the only way we can truly start to know the depth of His character and His amazing power and begin to trust Him as He provides sufficient grace and strength to go through those trials.

I love how The Message translates these verses...Paul's talking about his thorn in the flesh or handicap as it's called here: "At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that and then He told me: 'My grace is enough, it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.' Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of God moving in on my weakness...and so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

I’m not facing a chronic illness and I’m sure that it is very wearing to have to live with constant pain. But no matter what the circumstances and school of learning that God is taking us through, He will give us sufficient grace to allow us to be content in Him. He longs to show us, His beloved children, how big and strong He really is and how much He wants to give us and show us of Himself. He will be to me everything that He is! Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High is a good place to be.