That Will Suffice

Is God enough? In our day to day lives, is God enough or is there something else, something better? Are we self-sufficient enough that we do not need God, and we can get through our lives without Him? We can surely get through this life without submitting to God, but what are we going to do after our lives are over? As Christians, we have something that many others do not.  The thing that we have is hope. The hope that is made possible through the grace of God. God’s grace is sufficient for us.

When We Are Weak

Sometimes we make ourselves weak, and sometimes we are made weak. No one wants to be brought low, made humble, or made to suffer, but it is a part of life. Many times we stop and ask ourselves, “Why is this happening, or what did I do to deserve this?” Job, when he was suffering, asked, “Why did I not die at birth” (Job 3:11). Whether or not we did it to ourselves, the trials that we deal with in life can weaken us to the point that there seems to be nothing left for us. The Apostle Paul when weakened, when brought low by a “thorn in the flesh,” asked God for relief, and God responded with, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul responds to God’s statement by saying, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). When we are made weak and when we can no longer rely on our own strength to get by, we can be assured that God is there for us and through our weakness, we are made strong by God’s grace. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

When We Are Humble

Can you tell if you are humble? I believe that you can. I do not believe that God would ever give us a task to perform and not give us the ability to realize whether or not we have accomplished it. Not that we are to be like the Pharisee of Luke 18 when he prayed, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men.” The American College Dictionary says that humility is “having a modest sense of one’s own significance.” In other words, being humble is not thinking that we are more than what we really are. When we do have that high and mighty attitude about ourselves, then it might be necessary that we be brought down a peg or so to see the importance of God’s grace and the futility of our own self-sufficiency. James 4:6 says that God “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” We are in need of God’s grace. We might not realize it at first, but we can lose sight of the things that are truly important and necessary by becoming overly proud of who we are and what we have accomplished. God’s grace is one of these things.  God will bestow His grace and mercy on us if we have a humble and contrite heart (Ps. 34:18).

When We Are Lost

“In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). When is it that we need the grace of God most of all? It is when we are hopelessly and utterly lost, separated from God by our sins, and doomed to endure our just reward for all eternity. Have you ever heard someone say that there is no hope for them, and that if they even stepped foot inside a church building that they would catch on fire? There are people who feel this way. They feel like there is no forgiveness for what they have done. “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many” (Rom. 5:15). God’s grace is sufficient to wipe away all of our sins because it is greater than all of our sins. We are told in Ephesians 2:8 that “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” God’s grace is a gift that we could never earn but is freely given to us if we will just reach out and take hold of it.

Conclusion

By God’s grace, we are saved through faith that is manifested by the repentance of our sins and baptism into the body of Christ. Not only will this grace save us in the end, but it is here for us now so that we do not have to go through this life suffering without relief. God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him. This applies to us now as well. God’s grace is sufficient to comfort us in our time of need, and it give us the hope of eternal life that only comes through Christ Jesus.