God’s Grace is Sufficient

II Corinthians 12:1-10 People relying on their own abilities and their own logic will eventually run into trouble in a number of different areas. On the one hand life will become so complex and difficult that the temptation will be to completely give up and not try any more. Too often we’ll lay the blame on God’s doorstep and say that God just wasn’t there for me. On the other hand, things may be going almost too well and we’ll end up with an attitude of pride and arrogance and try to tell the world that we did all that ourselves. Many will operate like a yo-yo and go from one extreme to the other. The Apostle Paul had a very special experience. He was “caught up to the ‘third heaven'” and was shown things that are not able to be expressed. So that pride would not get the best of him, he was given a “thorn in the flesh.” We are not told what that thorn was, and many have speculated. The important thing was that Paul had a problem that just couldn’t be prayed away or cast out. He had to learn to rely on God to help him to carry on in spite of the difficulty. God’s only answer to Paul was that His grace was sufficient for him. It can be translated as: your car is broken down, I’ll get you there; you lose your job, I’ll supply your needs; there is no food, I’ll feed you; you’ve lost your friends, I’ll be there to comfort you and encourage you. God’s grace will always be enough, and it will always be on time. Our job 1 is to learn to trust in, rely on, and walk in that grace that He has provided. God showers grace on all because that's the kind of God He is; but how much sweeter it is when it flows through a close, trusting relationship between Him and His child.