Grace, Sufficient

(2Corinthians 12:9) “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness..."

Everything we do should be to the glory of God, yet I know that much in my life does not glorify Him; why after all He has done for me do I still act and behave in ways that do not bring Him glory. We have to conclude as we have in previous blogs established, it is not about our attempts to save ourselves, if we could of achieved this then Christ would not have to have died on Calvary on our behalf. Yet He did and it was a sacrifice like no other! I say that I love the Lord and I do; only because He first loved me, but it is John the beloved disciple that gives us all a reality check. How does he do this you may ask? (John 14:15) "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” So to say I love the Lord is not enough, isn’t that a little extreme you may ask, why? How can it be, true love is to lay down your life for another. The Lord Jesus demonstrated Love for the world to see by laying down His life and dying on a cruel Roman cross, and remember He was always in the right. In other words He was hated and yet he never hated back. He was afflicted with whips, thorns and struck by men’s hands and never once retaliated. Love is not just words but she demonstrates herself in actions. It is James that does not mince his words, and I thank the Lord for straight talk.

(James 2:18) But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

One of the gifts is faith, so someone will believe and trust more than another. However, to avoid any confusion or to make any allowance for the flesh to take a gap as it always does when given a chance, James says to that person, don’t just tell me you have the gift of faith, show me your faith by your actions; in like manner, if we say we love the Lord yet we are never mindful of His will in our lives. Let me rephrase that. We all are to some extent mindful but is that enough, I don’t believe it is, how can it be, I must learn to lay my life down just as Christ laid His life down for me. So how much do I love? All I need to do is look soberly into the mirror and it will be clear. Forgive me Lord I have much love to learn.

Having said that let us look at our text, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness..."

I think we can get confused with understanding this text; I know I have wanted to use this text as an excuse for sin in my life. That is not what it is teaching us. If we sin and we confess our sin then the Lord is faithful to forgive us our sin. This is very true, and I thank the Lord for His reassurance to this truth. I believe what we need to glean from this lesson about grace is not to trust in our abilities, our strengths, or even our disciplines. Our sole dependency must rest with the Lord. If I stutter when I speak and I nervously get the words out but they are life giving and full of wisdom and inspired by God the Holy Ghost, then surely I must learn to boast in my Lord and be pleased about my infirmity. Although I was not about to win an interpolation prize, what came out of my mouth were words full of life and seeing that I am full of pride and I want recognition, in this circumstance I was humbled. Get the point! There needs to be less of ourselves and much more of Christ.

All the strength supplied to us by our gracious Heavenly Father is meant for service, not for boasting or depravity. Consider Elijah, the Lord fed him with a baked cake and a flask of water and yet he was required to find sustenance from it for 40 days. The disciples were fed by the Lord and given instruction on how to feed His sheep. We must eat the bread of heaven, so that we may find strength for our Masters service. In the strength we daily gain from the Lord we need to labour for Him. I know many of us have much to learn about the design of the Lords grace and how it is to be used by us. Why does the Lord send the rain on a parched earth and give the genial sunshine? Is it not so the earth can bring forth fruit for mankind? The sunshine in summer was never purposed for the bronzing of our bodies. Even so the Lord feeds and refreshes our souls that we may afterwards use our renewed strength in the promotion of His glory.

Signing off

Tyrone