Sufficient

Sufficient

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:9‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Interesting is this word - sufficient. Which either means ‘not enough’ or ‘enough’ depending on what you put in front of it. 

In the verse we are looking at today, His grace was sufficient. There is no doubt and there is no use of His grace not being sufficient. 

A lot of words are like this though. You put something in front of it or after it and it changes what it means or the context of it. Our language is definitely interesting. 

Sufficient plainly means adequate and there are surely other synonyms that can be used as well. But I rather like the word sufficient. But adequate is not something I would use to describe God’s Grace. More on that in a bit. 

Sufficient is only used 12 times in the Bible and has a very profound usage. It’s interesting that I don’t recall using the word sufficient a lot or hearing it used equally as much. I think it would be rather odd to hear someone say, I have sufficient gas in my car. Or our savings account is not sufficient. It’s just not a word that is widely used. In fact, the word sufficient isn’t listed on the top 100 commonly used English words. Nowhere to be found. 

However, in 2 Corinthians 12:9 Jesus makes it very clear - His grace is sufficient. It isn’t too much. It isn’t not enough. Jesus doesn’t say you’ll need more grace later. Jesus doesn’t say His grace is way too much. It is sufficient.

It reminds me of the story of the three bears where Goldilocks finds one of the beds, just right. 

Simply put, God’s grace is it. It lacks nothing. It requires nothing in itself. We need not strive for anything beyond it. It is provided to us with nothing needed. 

But we search for so much more. We look for things in our lives to fulfill what’s missing. Either in relationships, financially or professionally. We all do it. But we need not do it with God’s Grace for it is sufficient. 

So what does all this mean?  It means we don’t need to fix anything with God. So why do we try so hard? We sin and ask for forgiveness. Not necessary. We think our works will provide entry into Heaven, not necessary. We give money and think that our relationship with God will strengthen, not necessary. God provides Grace - free of charge, with nothing extra needed. 

Just remember this - as you go to God and develop your relationship with Him, it is about us glorifying Him. It is about what we bring to God. It is what we do for God, not what God does for us. He provides the Grace. He provides the blessings. He provides everything, all you have to do is give yourself to Him. All of you. We have too much expectation on what God will do for us - and we usually don’t see all that He has already done or is doing in our lives. 

God has provided sufficient grace. What more do you want? That grace should be it. 

Live in sufficient grace. Live knowing that as you give yourself to God, you will be covered by His grace. 

Don’t let up. Pray daily. Read your Bible daily. Go to church. Surround yourself with like-minded Christians.

In order to stay in His Grace you have to do the those things. The problem is when we fall out of doing those things.

Keep your relationship with God strong!