2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Probably you have all had times in your life when you just don’t know what direction to take, or you just don’t feel God’s presence in your life, or maybe even you are so weak in your faith that you doubt God’s love and your salvation. I’m sure you have also had times while in these situations, that God has somehow gotten your attention and made you to see the reality of His presence and His perfect care for you! A lot of the time He grabs our attention by showing us parts of His word and applying the old but still very relevant truths to us and the situation we are in. This verse is an example of that in my life, and it is one of those verses that just grabs my attention. His grace is sufficient. No matter what we are facing, He always gives the grace to sustain His people through each situation. What is amazing about that grace is that He gives just enough of it and at the time we need it. You have seen people go through a hard time, face a death of a family member, or maybe they are diagnosed with a serious disease, and they seem to take it so well. You wonder what you would be like if God put you in the same situation, and it’s hard to imagine being able to get through a trial like that. But that is because we do not have God’s special grace at that moment that He gave to the one who needed it. We still have His grace! We never lose that, but there are times when “He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, He sended more strength as the labors increase…” (Hymn: He giveth more Grace). If we look back at the trials in our lives, sometimes we even ask ourselves how we got through them. And the answer is always, God’s grace was sufficient at that time. This is such a comfort! God will never leave us fighting alone, but He sends these trials our way to strengthen our faith and to make us to see that He is always in control.
The next part of the verse follows that thought. His strength is more clearly seen, made perfect, by our weakness. We are nothing next to God. Even a speck of dust or a drop of water is bigger in comparison to what we are next to God. His greatness is far far more than we can comprehend, and so is His strength. But the only way that we will really come to appreciate that strength is when we are weak. As sinful human beings, children of Adam and Eve, we like to do things our own way. We so easily become proud, self-centered, uncaring and ultimately just rotten, stinking sinners. That’s what we are by nature and that is the opposite of God. He is the High and Lofty One! The Stronghold and Protector of His people. When we are weak, He is strong, and there is no one else beside Him that can save us so unconditionally. But He works through the times when we are the weakest, to make us see how strong and mighty He is. All we can do then is thank and praise Him for His grace and all His love for us!
Lynette Kleyn
Young Calvinists 