There’s Enough Grace

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

What’s dragging you down? A chronic illness tearing at your body and soul? A relationship that has soured? Estrangement from a wayward son or daughter? A dead end career? Perhaps you’ve prayed and prayed about it and the answer has not yet come. Or perhaps you have received your answer and it’s, “NO!”

Have you got one of those ongoing prayers for an ongoing need? If so, you can relate to the Apostle Paul. He had a “thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know what it was, but he didn’t like it and he didn’t want it. 

In his letter to the Corinthian Christ followers, he wrote about three intense prayers asking God to remove his thorn. The answer to each of them was, “No!” But, wait, there’s more! Paul told them that his thorn was actually a blessing because it kept him dependent on God. In other words, his thorn was a continual reminder of the sufficiency of God’s grace. Paul was weak, but God demonstrated His strength in it.

No one prays for thorns in their lives - I guarantee it. In fact, when they come, our prayer is that God takes them away. Listen now, sometimes His answer is, “No,” just like it was with Paul. That doesn’t mean that God is mad at you. It doesn’t mean He has lost interest in you or forgotten you. Accept it as His tender reminder that a sufficient amount of grace will show up when you need it. Then you can proclaim as Paul did, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Have you considered thanking God for the thorns in your life? If not, try it. You’ll discover that God shows His awesome power through your weakness and inadequacy.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12.9