Sufficient Grace

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

This is a verse we have heard countless times. It has been used, and sadly abused in its interpretation. How often you hear the phrase, "grace, grace, grace!" Truly grace is the greatest gift of God to us, demonstrated by the life, death, and resurrected life of Jesus Christ. However it has been taken for granted or talked of as this cushion-room for safety for when we sin. Is this a wrong picture? In some ways yes, in others no. Certainly Gods grace becomes to us a cushion of comfort when we go astray, but that is only to a broken and truly repentant heart, used as a cushion for a heart sorry for the consequences wrought from sin or a heart that feels bad, but not repentant is an abuse of Gods grace.

I'm looking at this passage from a new point of view, as a response. Paul explains to us that there was something in his life, "a messenger of Satan" that was buffeting him. We do not know what it was---a constant temptation perhaps? A physical infermity? Condemnation from his past? We know not the details, but we know that it was a continuous blow to him. Something that was beating him down. So much so that he tells us that he pleaded with God for it to be removed from his life---not just once, it was something that burdened his walk with the Lord. Yet the response of God to him was this, "My grace is sufficient for you." I perceive it like this, "Paul, whatever difficulty is pressing against you, whatever is troubling your heart, whatever is present that you wish was not, my grace provides enough for you to face it." Sufficient---plain and simple, it means enough. No lack, no surpluss, enough for the need.

God goes on to reveal to Paul that if he receives the first, acceptance that His grace will be enough, and he has no need for the removal of his difficulty, THEN, he would see the promise, of Gods strength made perfect through the difficulty. The obstacle of the enemy is Gods platform for His glorification. 

Too often, I think a Christian facing a challenge, a temptation, a struggle, doesn't get to see Gods full design in His allowance of it because they are not allowing His grace to be applied for what it is. The sufficiency of it to a broken and contrite spirit. The total enough of it, needing not to run from the challenge. God is looking to build character in His children, and character is not built with the removal of difficulties but with the strength of endurance to walk through them. To buffet back at the buffet against oneself. To pull down the stronghold that is pulling you down. A heart that is allowing Gods grace to be more than a cushion, but a foundation, and a confidence--a sufficiency, can then see His strength show forth in the battle against the difficulty at hand. A heart that accepts its own weakness can then receive His great strength.