My life has been a manifestation of God’s grace. The grace to continue to obey and serve him (even though sometimes I feel like giving up and chase after something else) and the grace to be patient and allow God to work things out in his own way. Grace is a powerful tool that we possess as Christians and most of us tend to overlook its abilities. We pray for love to fill our hearts, we pray for our finances and we might even pray for the fruits of the spirit which is mentioned in Gal 5:22-23 but we hardly pray for grace over our lives.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that “‘My grace is sufficient for you’ for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me”.
Sometimes when we go through life’s difficulties we tend to wonder whether God has forsaken us and we seek for the grace that the bible speaks about. Sometimes our problems are too big that we minimise God’s power in our lives. The grace of God is not the ability to stop the problems in our lives, in fact, if we recall the story of Job; in Job 1:6-12 the bible says when the sons of God came to give an account to God, satan bought his account of Job’s life to God. Satan said, Job is blessed, you gave him all his heart desires, you’ve blessed all the works of his hands, that’s why he is still serving you. The Lord said to Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.” – Job 1:12 (HCSB).
That very statement reminded me of Apostle Paul when he was called by God in Acts 9:15-16, Paul was chosen just like Job, to suffer, no wonder he said that “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself” – 2 Cor 12:7 (HCSB). God sometimes sends demons and trials to keep us in check, to keep us humble and to show off his ability to look after us. Sometimes we wonder that even though we fast and pray, certain problems do not go away. God’s grace is always sufficient, but the key to grace is found in verse 10 of 2 Cor 12. Grace only comes when we acknowledge that our strength comes from God. David clearly understood this principle, that’s why he said when I’m going through problems where would my help come from? “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth”
We must take joy in all our trials, tribulations and weaknesses and must not be ashamed because only by admitting that we are weak, Gods power is perfected in our lives.
May the grace of God be with you.