Sufficient Grace
“ But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9.
“My grace is sufficient for you...” I was talking to the Lord this morning about why so often His sufficient grace does not feel sufficient. He is a big God. Shouldn’t His grace be abundant and overflowing? Why would a God who is so overwhelmingly generous in so many ways be so seemingly stingy in the grace department?
Well, no sooner did the thought cross my mind when a picture came to mind of going through a buffet line. God puts a good amount of tasty vegetables on my plate, an appropriate portion of protein and a small piece of luscious looking fruit. I see all that God has put on my plate, but then I take it upon myself to add an appetizer, a baked potato and a dessert. Then I wonder why I feel uncomfortable later. Had I kept with what He put on my plate, I would not feel miserable.
When we say "grace" before a meal, we are asking for God’s blessing over what we are about to eat. Even though I may have prayed over the meal, if those extra foods were not in His plan for me, my body won't have the extra "grace" necessary to digest and properly utilize those foods. The extras I add go toward indigestion, extra weight, clogged arteries and discomfort. Praying over the meal won't magically change something that is outside of His will into something within His will any more than asking for His blessing before an extramarital affair makes it holy, blessed and ordained by God.
So it is with our to-do list and so many other things in our lives. There are certainly things on that list that are authored by Him. However, there are may also things we have scribbled onto our list that we don't have the grace to complete. We don't like to feel weak or incapable. We want to believe that we are superhuman, but the truth is that no one has issued to us a cape.
I suppose the disciples could have spent all they had and stayed up all night to buy and prepare food to try to feed the 5000 (John 6:1-14). But how much better it was that they asked for help, and God provided loaves and fishes through a child, multiplying that into a miracle. The disciples could have depleted their supplies and spent all of their energy, and they still would have fallen short. How much better it was to rely on God to provide a miracle!
As a people, we are overly tired and downright cranky, because we have more on our plates than we have the grace to handle. God generously provides ample grace to cover every sin, but our supply of energy, money, time and strength are purposefully limited. In His compassion He puts a cap on those things as a way of sparing us from the harm we would experience were we to have an unlimited amount of them.
We overwork and over spend, striving for things that won’t make us happy. We over feed ourselves foods that have no capacity to satisfy, because we erroneously think it will make us feel better. Well, we may feel better, but only until we swallow and satisfaction is whisked away and replaced with regret. We may be able to do these things, but they aren’t wise. It really comes down to not having enough faith to believe that God can truly satisfy us with less, or that He can miraculously provide what we need when we stay within the parameters He sets for us.
Dear friend, if you are like the rest of the world, you have overloaded your plate at life’s buffet. Why not ask the Father which items belong on your plate and which don’t and adjust your plate accordingly? A miracle just might be in your future if you do! 💡
If you have been encouraged or challenged, please repost and further His kingdom!
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