My Grace Is All You Need

March 20, 2015

My Grace Is All You Need

“Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need.”

2 Corinthians 12:8-9a

When I first read Brennan Manning’s memoir, All is Grace I was a bit put off. I had idolized him for his ability to live and communicate the awesome grace of God. He had surrendered his ordination as a priest because he found true love. He married, mastered his alcoholism and the last time I talked with him when he was living in New Orleans, he was very, very happy. Then his life came unglued, again. He divorced. He again stumbled over the temptation of alcohol. He was asked how it was possible that someone who has had such powerful encounters with God’s grace could relapse. When I first read his response I thought it was trite, flippant: “These things happen.” Upon deeper reflection, I found it simple and eloquent.

At his end, Manning was dependent on the kindness of others for his sustenance. Certainly this was not a Hollywood, story-book ending for a man who had helped countless thousands open their hearts to the tenderness of Abba’s embrace. Maybe it wasn’t a Hollywood ending, but it was biblical. Jesus said pretty much the same thing would happen to the Apostle Peter. (John 21:18-19)

We want external recognition of the sacrifices we make for the Kingdom of God, the life in Christ. We want to be better than before. We want others to see Jesus visible in our mortal flesh. The Apostle Paul waxed poetic to Timothy when thinking about the end of his life: “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day . . .” (2 Timothy 4:7b-8 NRSV). We tend to forget that at his end, Paul, alone and dismayed in a Roman jail, was beheaded.

After her death, Mother Teresa’s personal letters revealed she and Brennan Manning were two peas in a pod. "I am told God lives in me -- and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul," she wrote in one of the letters. She was both holy and human; and she and Brennan were not alone. The Apostles Peter and Paul are in the pod with them, as are countless souls who have dared to believe in the furious longing of God’s love for us, just as we are.

Manning, Teresa, and Peter stood with Paul and heard Abba say, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8). In our human experience, some days God’s grace is more than sufficient. Some days it’s not. Some days we want more. Some days we are sure we need more than just our Abba saying. “I love you.” It has been my experience than on those latter days, He does give more. In addition to saying, “I love you” Abba says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:3-4 NRSV).

Is that enough for you? For me, so far it has been.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms is available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ  is available as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.