Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

He Is Always Enough

2 CORINTHIANS 12:8-10 – Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

THEME OF THE DAY. HE IS ALWAYS ENOUGH. We may not always think so. Life is hard, but sometimes it gets really hard; like hard to the point we think it is too hard. We feel overwhelmed with demands upon us; drowning in trials engulfing us; and encountering tough circumstances that seem to have no end or only one end – our downfall. And during these times, the devil wants nothing more than to get us to believe his lies; lies such as “Where is God now?”, “You can’t endure this much longer”, or the worst of all lies, “God and His grace are not enough for you.” This will always be one of the chief tactics of the devil against God’s children; get us to question the sufficiency of God’s grace in challenging times. Should he be successful, three things will happen in the heart of the Christian.

First, we will stop praying. God often delays answering the prayers of His children to teach them perseverance in the school of waiting. If we listen to the devil, our praying hearts will turn to complaining hearts. And complaining hearts will not be praying hearts. Oh, we will talk to God, or think we are, but it will really be nothing more than our complaining over His delay or even accusing Him of mistreatment.

From a non-praying complaining heart, the next thing happening in a Christian who believes the lie of the devil about the sufficiency of God’s grace is a lack of trust in the sovereignty of God. What is the sign of this mistrust? We begin to take things under our control. We try to change challenging circumstances and situations. We attempt to control difficult relationships in the strength of ourselves. This happens to parents of prodigals. They try to control them and their situations which only deepens the rebellion and prodigal wandering. It also happens in difficult marriages. Control becomes the battleground for feuding spouses. Friends, we are in control of nothing, not even ourselves.

A third thing to happen in a Christian who questions the sufficiency of God’s grace will be divine discipline or chastisement. God takes no pleasure in His children who won’t believe Him. And should we persist in unbelief by looking more at outward circumstances instead of His eternal promises of sufficient grace, He will bring the rod of correction into our lives. We are told God is pleased by our trust in Him, but this goes further. We are told it is impossible to please Him apart from exercising confident faith in Him – And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

But we don’t have to be an untrusting, non-praying, and complaining child of God when life gets tough. Like the Apostle Paul in today’s scripture, we may see through the circumstance, situation, and relationship to the God who is there; the God of all grace who has promised He will be enough. Let’s fight the lies of the devil and prove our God’s faithfulness. Remember, He is always enough for us and that all the time.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for always providing sufficient grace no matter what I encounter in life.”

QUOTE: “God would not lead us into a trial or testing without also providing the grace to endure them.”