The Sufficiency of Grace

October 9, 2018

The Sufficiency of Grace

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

 Romans 5:1-2a

When the Apostle Paul took his issue with a thorn in his flesh to God, the answer he received was, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). While Saint Paul was writing about his particular concern at that time, he would be quick to add that God’s response to all of the issues we face in life is always, “My grace is sufficient for you.” That response leads us to ask ourselves whether God’s grace is enough for us.

Certainly we believe in the sufficiency of God’s grace to make us right in God’s sight. We know that God saved us by his grace when we believed. And we can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God, so none of us can boast about having been made right in God’s sight. Where we question the sufficiency of God’s grace is in the everyday ebb and flow of our lives.

We share our core needs with every other human being: the need to be loved, to be accepted and to have a sense of self-worth. How do we meet our needs? The culture around us meets these needs by playing the games of life. Using manipulation, intimidation, or whatever ego strengths they have, people play the money game, the security game, the gender game, the power game, the knowledge game, the expert game, whatever games they can master to satisfy their longings to be loved, to be accepted and for self-worth.

Over and against this backdrop, we hear our Abba Father gently whisper in our soul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Do we believe our Abba? Do we believe enough to drop out of the games people play?

My Takeaway: When we exit the playing fields and begin to trust in the sufficiency of God’s grace to meet our needs for love, acceptance and self-worth, we will soon realize that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: 38-39).

Sē’lah

Alex

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(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 has been published and is now 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 has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.