Nuggets 36:  God's Grace Is Enough

 

 

It is incredible what gracious things can come from God when we are in our dark valleys.  A few years ago someone dear to us was going through fires of trial.  A friend who loved him and his ministry gave him a drawing.  It pictured a man sitting in a chair with his head in his hands.  But surrounding and undergirding the seated figure were the great hands of God.

We don't understand why some things happen to us.  Or why God sometimes fixes things when we cry to him but sometimes doesn't.  Paul the apostle had to wonder why God allowed a tormenting illness when Paul already carried the burden of evangelizing the Gentile world and his enemies wanted to kill him.  He cried to God three times for relief, but God's only answer was, "My grace is enough for you.  My strength is at its best when you are weak."

A respected counselor once told me, "God requires the most from those through whom he will do the most."  We can't imagine how God could turn our pain into good, but he is great enough to do it.  Paul later understood that his physical weakness kept him from a pride that would have destroyed him and his ministry.  Others of us have learned lessons of trust and compassion from our dark times.  Some have become more steady in adversity, more dependable soldiers.  My wife's father was murdered when she was five, leaving a widow with four children and an unborn.  Yet God has poured amazing blessing on the world through that family.

Do you believe in God?  Then believe that God loves you with a love you cannot imagine.  His great hands surround you.  He knows what he is doing.  Keep reminding yourself:   If I walk in God, his grace is enough.  Nothing is more certain than God.  Regardless of today, I am going to be more than OK.

Deuteronomy 33:27;  2 Corinthians 12:7-10;  Luke 12:48b;  James 1:2-4;  Romans 5:3-5;  Romans 8:24-39;  Genesis 50:15-20;  Jeremiah 29:11;  John 14:1;  1 John 5:4