SUFFICIENCY FOR ALL CHALLENGES
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Verse for Today
2 Corinthians12:9a - But (the Lord) said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness".
When we seek the face of the Lord in meeting a very deep need our lives, especially when it is much needed for the ministry of the Lord, we would naturally expect a positive answer from Him. For we seek the Lord for His glory to be demonstrated in something that is done by Him in and through us. But the Lord has different approaches to deal with this need of ours. There is nothing impossible with Him and so He can very well meet the need, whether it is money, health or dealing with opposition and persecution. But He does it all only according to His divine plan and program. In the case of Paul, his need for healing in order to be effective in the ministry was paramount. He was given ministry of healing as one of the marks of his apostleship. When he is used to heal others, what is so big about expecting healing for him? But the Lord chose to allow Paul's ministry to flourish even through his unmet health need. Instead, He gave Paul the grace to go forward in the ministry along with his physical ailment. The Lord gave Paul the grace to continue to suffer from his problem, but with the abundance of the Lord's grace to deal with it with patience and humility. In order for the ministry to continue, the Lord gave him able and willing assistants like Timothy, Titus, Epaphras, Silas and John Mark. As they helped Paul and his ministry, it was also an opportunity for these young brothers to be trained for ministry. In order for Paul to cope with the physical ailment, the Lord would not give healing, but allowed a doctor to travel with him, until he reached Rome and completed the writing of the second epistle to Timothy. So Paul had a choice to take either the healing or the grace of God. As a visionary missionary, Paul was contended with grace for which there is no substitute.
Dear friend, have you been praying for answer to a genuine problem you have been faced with? Do you find that the Lord is not answering you in solving your problem? Check around to see if He is giving you the same answer He gave Paul? Do you find enough grace to live with this problem and be a greater blessing to many rather than being a smaller blessing with the problem solved? If so will you be able to satisfy yourself with this better answer of grace that you probably never asked for, but is more than what you could have ask for? The question is whether you are satisfied with the grace of God to face your situation or not? Perhaps the Lord is asking you not to continue to pray for the need to be met, because the need has been met with grace according to the Lord's divine measure. Not only that, the way the Lord deals in grace with you has become a greater blessing to many around you. The answer the Lord gave to Paul has become a great source of comfort and promise for millions of saints throughout the last 20 centuries. When Paul was satisfied with the answer of the Lord, it has become a blessing to God's people and we all get to enrich our lives as we read and meditate this verse time and again. Let us therefore learn to thank the Lord for answered prayers which are specially filled with His grace. His reservoir of grace is like an ocean which will never run dry and will have enough for all of us to drink from it and be imbibed in it to enrich our lives. So it is impossible for us to complain to the Lord about any expectant answer to prayer while imbibing in His grace.
James 4:6 - But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Thought for Today
The fountain of God's grace falling on us continuously is sufficient for all our situations.
Verse for Today
2 Corinthians12:9a - But (the Lord) said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness".
When we seek the face of the Lord in meeting a very deep need our lives, especially when it is much needed for the ministry of the Lord, we would naturally expect a positive answer from Him. For we seek the Lord for His glory to be demonstrated in something that is done by Him in and through us. But the Lord has different approaches to deal with this need of ours. There is nothing impossible with Him and so He can very well meet the need, whether it is money, health or dealing with opposition and persecution. But He does it all only according to His divine plan and program. In the case of Paul, his need for healing in order to be effective in the ministry was paramount. He was given ministry of healing as one of the marks of his apostleship. When he is used to heal others, what is so big about expecting healing for him? But the Lord chose to allow Paul's ministry to flourish even through his unmet health need. Instead, He gave Paul the grace to go forward in the ministry along with his physical ailment. The Lord gave Paul the grace to continue to suffer from his problem, but with the abundance of the Lord's grace to deal with it with patience and humility. In order for the ministry to continue, the Lord gave him able and willing assistants like Timothy, Titus, Epaphras, Silas and John Mark. As they helped Paul and his ministry, it was also an opportunity for these young brothers to be trained for ministry. In order for Paul to cope with the physical ailment, the Lord would not give healing, but allowed a doctor to travel with him, until he reached Rome and completed the writing of the second epistle to Timothy. So Paul had a choice to take either the healing or the grace of God. As a visionary missionary, Paul was contended with grace for which there is no substitute.
Dear friend, have you been praying for answer to a genuine problem you have been faced with? Do you find that the Lord is not answering you in solving your problem? Check around to see if He is giving you the same answer He gave Paul? Do you find enough grace to live with this problem and be a greater blessing to many rather than being a smaller blessing with the problem solved? If so will you be able to satisfy yourself with this better answer of grace that you probably never asked for, but is more than what you could have ask for? The question is whether you are satisfied with the grace of God to face your situation or not? Perhaps the Lord is asking you not to continue to pray for the need to be met, because the need has been met with grace according to the Lord's divine measure. Not only that, the way the Lord deals in grace with you has become a greater blessing to many around you. The answer the Lord gave to Paul has become a great source of comfort and promise for millions of saints throughout the last 20 centuries. When Paul was satisfied with the answer of the Lord, it has become a blessing to God's people and we all get to enrich our lives as we read and meditate this verse time and again. Let us therefore learn to thank the Lord for answered prayers which are specially filled with His grace. His reservoir of grace is like an ocean which will never run dry and will have enough for all of us to drink from it and be imbibed in it to enrich our lives. So it is impossible for us to complain to the Lord about any expectant answer to prayer while imbibing in His grace.
James 4:6 - But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Thought for Today
The fountain of God's grace falling on us continuously is sufficient for all our situations.
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