Welcoming November often turns the thoughts of our hearts to gratitude. It seems gratitude always has more to teach us with each passing year. Recently I sat with the intricately woven idea of gratitude for God’s sufficient grace.
Fully understanding God’s grace extended to me through the undeserved favor of God and others shines forth in humble gratitude which honors the Giver of all grace.
Ultimately, Gratitude is a response to Grace, which glorifies God.
But delving deeper into God’s grace gave me fresh eyes for the all sufficient nature of this undeserved merit lavished upon me for no other reason than the unfailing capacity of God’s love.
Sufficient Grace
Increasing my gratitude for God’s sufficient grace blossomed out of the study of one tiny portion of 2 Corinthians 12:9:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
The Apostle Paul shares this morsel of advice as his answer from God to a prayer placed before the Almighty on three separate occasions.
After amazing revelations seen by Paul when caught up to the third heaven, God allowed a physical affliction in Paul’s life, protecting him from conceit.
While God possessed the ability to remove, or at the very least, mitigate Paul’s suffering, He chose instead to gift Paul with His grace.
Understanding grace as God’s unmerited favor sourced in His unfailing love, we may struggle with the sufficiency of that grace in times of suffering.
Consider the Source of Sufficiency
Missing the utter magnificence of this verse at first glance, my mind grasped only a mild rebuke. As if God said, “Paul, you ask too much, be happy with my grace, it’s good enough for you”.
Yet, upon meditation, God actually gifted Paul with the greatest possible treasure for his circumstances.
In essence, God’s answer holds not a rebuke nor an inferior offering, but the rock-solid assurance that His love was sufficient for Paul’s suffering.
As fellow heirs of God’s sufficient grace, we have the same assurance God’s love will always be sufficient for any trial we face.
Perhaps the most powerful verses on the sufficiency of God’s love and grace written by Paul in his letter to the Romans one year later, issued from this encounter with God amid Paul’s suffering.
“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
God’s Sufficient Grace
Gratitude pours forth as we inhale the full magnitude of 2 Corinthians 12:9:
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
- “My grace is sufficient for you.” Whose grace is it? The grace of your victorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What has the power of defeat over Him? Our great High Priest identifies with your suffering but offers victory in exchange.
- “My grace is sufficient for you.” Right now: Not at a future point in time, not if you do the right things. No matter how dire your circumstances, they cannot override the sufficient grace of God available in every single moment.
- “My grace is sufficient for YOU.” Paul held no exclusive access to God’s sufficient grace. As it was sufficient for Paul, so it remains sufficient for YOU: no one rests outside of God’s grace, your thorn is not beyond the sufficiency of God’s formidable grace and love.
Though the word “sufficient” seems modest in our understanding of the English word used in our modern translations, the Greek word chosen by Paul, “arkeó“, implies “being possessed of unfailing strength”.
Alan Redpath explains this aspect best:
“Do you see the humor of the situation? God’s grace: me. His grace is sufficient for little me! How absurd to think that it could ever be any different! As if a little fish could swim in the ocean and fear lest it might drink it dry! The grace of our crucified, risen, exalted, triumphant Savior, the Lord of all glory, is surely sufficient for me! Do you not think it is rather modest of the Lord to say sufficient?”
Gratitude For God’s Sufficient Grace
Coming full circle from receiving 2 Corinthians 12:9 as a “good enough” answer to a desperate plea, to a humble place of complete astonishment at the vastness of God’s sufficient grace, the only word my heart holds is Gratitude.
In a season where our thoughts turn to giving thanks, may our hearts overflow with true Gratitude for God’s sufficient grace available without limits or conditions.
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Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about Gratitude For God’s Sufficient Grace.
