God's Grace Is All You Need

When Paul wrote about "a thorn in his flesh", which he asked God to take away, the response he got was not the response he expected, but one that he learned to accept. After pestering God in prayers three times about this situation, God said to him "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9, NIV). Just to be clear, God is asking Paul to live with whatever the 'thorn in his flesh' is. In other words, God is not going to take the thorn away, but He will give him something instead - Grace! What is this grace and how can it be better than relief from 'a thorn in the flesh'? Paul spends the whole of his epistles describing, explaining, and praying for this grace for all the churches and their leaders. Let's examine some of what Paul said about the grace of God.

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." (1 Cor. 15:10, NIV). It was the grace of God that found Paul on the way to Damascus when he was set to capture, torture and imprison Christians. He thought they were heretics that needed to be enlightened by force, but God should him that he was wrong. He got converted after a miraculous encounter with God and became a Christian himself. He found forgiveness is God's grace and he became a herald of the very message he sought to destroy. God's grace then led him to work hard, harder than all the other apostles before him, in spite of the 'thorn in his flesh'. Like Paul, we are what we are, only by His grace. 

When we pray about a situation that is uncomfortable in our lives, we need to learn that for the period that the situation persists, we can draw on the sufficiency of His grace. The reality is that we tend to worry about our situation. We all know that worry never solves any problem, but we do it all the same. Someone said this about worry and I agree with them. They said "worry is interest paid on a debt we may never owe". Worry does not help us, but God's grace does. God's power accompanies His grace. Ask for grace for that situation that worries you, pray for God to help you rest in His grace. It is in this situation that you will encounter joy, rest and peace in the Holy Spirit. 

God's grace is connected to His very being. His grace can't be earned, it is not deserved, but He freely gives it to those who ask. Pain and suffering are bad and an experience nobody enjoys. A day is coming when God will end all our pain and suffering, but in the meantime we can draw on His grace to help us through. He has promised us His comfort and peace in times of difficulty. Let's lean on Him in these days of trauma, lack, grief and pain. Let's draw on His grace so that we can experience His power. 

God is glorified in our weakness. Without God's grace, Gideon could not become a mighty warrior. Without God's grace, David could not face Goliath. It was grace that helped Daniel in the lion's den, it was grace that quenched the fiery furnace when the three Hebrew children were thrown in and came out "unburnt". God's grace is sufficient for you today. God's grace shows off the impressive power of God, so that we can all truly say like Paul, "when I am weak, then I am strong". My prayer is that we might grow in this grace, that we might be able to say, like Paul, "That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong". Don't worry, ask for grace. God's grace is all you need at this time of great need.