All-Sufficient Grace

Let's spend a few minutes in 2 Corinthians 12:9. This verse comes in response to Paul's prayer for healing. Paul had some kind of physical ailment. Now, if you've ever studied this passage, you'll find that commentaries offer all sorts of ideas on what this ailment might have been. But we're not going to dive into that speculation today. What matters is that Paul prayed three times for God to remove it. And God's response was simple yet profound:

"My grace is enough for you. My power is made perfect in weakness."

Now, when we think about something being "enough," we often think of just meeting the bare minimum. If we’re leaving the house and the gas is low, we might say, “We’ve got enough to make it.” But how many times have we found that what we thought was enough… wasn’t?

God’s "enough" is different. The Greek word Paul uses here is "ákrio," and it means more than just barely sufficient. It means to be possessed of unfailing strength, to be strong, to suffice, to be more than enough. It’s not like the "enough" we use when we’re trying to make it to the next gas station without running out of fuel. God’s grace doesn’t just get us to the next stop; it’s overwhelmingly sufficient.

Imagine this: You’re on your way to Chick-fil-A, as usual, because, well, it’s Chick-fil-A. The gas light comes on, and you think, “I’ve got enough to make it.” You’re driving, and just as you’re about to pull into the parking lot, the car sputters and dies—right at the light. It turns out what you thought was enough wasn’t enough after all. You find yourself pushing the car, maybe with a little help from a good Samaritan, but you definitely didn’t make it on your own.

But when God says, “My grace is enough,” He’s not talking about barely scraping by. His grace is more than enough. It’s not just sufficient; it’s all-sufficient, overwhelmingly so. When He says, “My grace is sufficient for you,” He means you’ve never seen anything like this before. His grace is so sufficient that it doesn’t just get you there—it carries you there in a way that’s beyond anything you could imagine.

So, when God says, "My grace is enough," it's both a promise and an invitation. God promises that His grace will be enough for whatever we face. And our response should be one of faith, proclaiming that His grace is indeed more than sufficient. Many of us have lived through situations where, without God's grace, we wouldn't have made it. Paul reminds us of this truth by sharing his own experiences, emphasizing how God's grace sustained him through unimaginable trials.

Paul’s life was full of challenges. In 2 Corinthians, he lays out some of the things he went through—imprisonments, beatings, near-death experiences. He endured five Jewish lashings—39 stripes each time. That’s no small thing. It was designed to be so severe that 40 lashes were considered potentially deadly, so they’d stop at 39. Paul went through this five times. How did he survive? How did he keep going?

The answer is simple: God’s grace.

Paul was also beaten with rods three times by the Romans. The Romans didn’t have any such limit as the Jews did. They didn’t care if you lived or died, especially if you were a conquered person like Paul. Yet, Paul endured this, too, not because he was particularly strong, but because God’s grace was at work in him.

And then there was the time Paul was stoned—left for dead outside the city. Stoning wasn’t just an attempt to hurt someone; it was meant to kill. Yet, Paul got up and continued his mission. That’s not just surviving—that’s thriving through God’s all-sufficient grace.

Paul didn’t just face physical challenges; he also had spiritual experiences that were almost beyond words. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about being caught up to the third heaven. He saw and heard things that were so sacred he wasn’t even allowed to speak about them. This experience was so profound, so incredible, that it could have easily led to pride.

But to keep Paul grounded, God gave him a "thorn in the flesh." We don’t know exactly what this thorn was, but it was serious enough that Paul asked three times for God to take it away. Yet, God’s response was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

This thorn wasn’t a punishment; it was a reminder. A reminder that Paul’s strength didn’t come from himself, but from God’s grace. The very thing that seemed to be a hindrance was actually the thing that kept Paul dependent on God. It was this grace that allowed Paul to not just endure his trials, but to find strength in them.

What does this mean for us? It means that in our moments of greatest weakness—when we feel like we can’t go on, when life’s burdens are too heavy—that’s where God’s grace shows up the strongest. It’s not about us being strong enough; it’s about God’s strength being revealed in our weakness.

Think about it: How many times have we faced something that felt too big for us to handle? Maybe it was the loss of a loved one, a diagnosis that turned our world upside down, or a situation that left us feeling completely helpless. In those moments, it wasn’t our own strength that carried us through—it was God’s grace.

John Wesley once wrote that he was a "wonder to himself," amazed at how he had never tired of preaching, writing, or traveling, even into his eighties. How did he do it? By relying on God’s all-sufficient grace, just like Paul..

God’s grace is not just enough; it’s more than enough. It’s overwhelmingly sufficient, abundantly available, and it’s exactly what we need, no matter what we’re facing.

When Paul was at his weakest, that’s when God’s strength was most evident. The same is true for us. When we embrace our weaknesses, when we stop trying to be strong on our own, that’s when we experience the full power of God’s grace.

So whatever you’re going through today, know this: God’s grace is enough for you. His power is made perfect in your weakness. You don’t have to have it all together. You don’t have to be strong enough on your own. God’s grace is there, carrying you, sustaining you, and it’s more than you’ll ever need.