Originally posted January 3, 2015… I do hope this will encourage you today…

God has given us grace for today. His Word says, His “grace is sufficient” for me. (2 Corinthians 12:9). It’s not too much, not too little. It’s just enough. It’s not overflowing; it’s not deficient. It’s not in over-abundance, and it’s not found wanting. It’s just the right amount at the right time.

I have found that, often, we think we don’t need His grace until we’re in the middle of the battlefield, and we find ourselves weary, broken, battered and afraid. At that moment, we cry out for His grace. We know His grace will give us strength to stand. His grace will give us refuge from the storm. His grace will give us faith in that moment of doubt.

However, His grace is there for us, not only in the battle, but it is there to grasp every day we rise. His grace can give us sweeping victory. A victory that comes with a battle that has been fought with a valiant faith rather than doubt. Victory that comes on the other side of a tenacious stand which says, “I’m still standing here!” Victory that comes from knowing our God is on our side and believing, “If God be for us WHO can be against us?”

So often, we tend to only state the first part of that Scripture, “My grace is sufficient for you;” yet, we fail to realize the rest of it: “for My power is made perfect in weakness.” This is the part of the Scripture that we, too many times, don’t understand until we are in that “battered, bruised and ‘about to quit’ stage” of the battle. We find ourselves at this point, because we fail to lean on His grace from the beginning. If we could just realize, from the start, in comparison to Christ, we are so weak, and we so desperately need His grace from the time we awake in the morning till the moment our head hits the pillow at night, we could then rest in this grace. We could, then, be at peace knowing His strength is made perfect through our imperfections and weaknesses rather than the other way around.

If we could remember His grace is sufficient for us, FOR His power is made perfect in (our) weakness, we would be SO much better off! If we could remember that we are just so weak without Him, we would not be weak! If we could remember, we are powerless without Him, we would not be powerless!

Yet, so often, I find myself trying to make it on my own, thinking I can do things in my own strength, in my own power. I get to that place of struggle, that place of faltering, and I wonder why I am there. I wonder why I feel so weak, so powerless, so frail; then, I realize I have been walking and fighting in my own strength rather than His. I realize I have been relying on my own wisdom and understanding to survive the day rather than His infinite wisdom and grace. It is only grace which sustains me. It is only grace that remains when all else is lost. Grace is right there waiting on us. All we must do is receive it. It is a wonderful gift for which we don’t have to strive or toil. All we must do is freely receive.

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” John 1:16