HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT

“And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, mine own hand hath saved me.” (Judges 7:2).

 

“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).

 

The enemies of Israel had once more beaten them down very low when God began to call Gideon to be His agent of change.  Gideon’s faith was tentative at best and required some encouragement, but he was willing to do what he was asked to do.  God wanted him to be an example of faith and obedience to the people of Israel who had fallen away from serving God.  When he blew the trumpet to call the people to arms, 32,000 men came up to fight!  This was not a bad army with which to face the Midianites.  God thought otherwise.  He told Gideon he had too many men to deliver Israel – He didn’t want them thinking that THEY had saved themselves.  So, Gideon culled 22,000 of the number by announcing that anyone who was fearful and afraid could return to their home.  This left only 10,000.  Still not bad, but God considered that this was still too many men and suggested a way of separating out the men that He wanted to remain.  After testing them at the river’s edge, there were only 300 warriors left to face the host of the Midianites.  The enemy’s numbers were described as “… the sand of the sea for multitude.” 

 

This story reminds me of a time when the Apostle Paul was struggling with a weakness in his flesh that would not be healed, and he asked God three times to remove it from him.  The Lord simply said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul's response was to say that he would gladly glory in his infirmities, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  Like Paul, I am often troubled by my own weakness, but the Lord reminds me that His grace is sufficient to meet any need in my life and to deliver me from any temptation.  Just like Gideon, He allows me to be reduced to my weakness to remind me that it is He who saves me, and not myself.

 

Are you being reduced to weakness by circumstances in your life that you can’t control?  Do you feel helpless or hopeless over a situation that you are experiencing?  Do you know that God is setting the stage for a mighty deliverance in your life?  It’s in your weakness that He wishes to show His strength!  If you can handle the circumstances of your life by yourself, you have no need for God’s help; and He is not glorified.  When, however, you are brought to the place where you can’t help yourself, that’s when the power of Christ rests on you because you must then turn to Him for your salvation!    

 

We humans hate to be reduced to weakness.  We want to be self-reliant and in control; but then we have the tendency to vaunt ourselves, and we forget that we need a Savior.  Salvation is not just a one-time experience at an altar, but rather a life-long process of learning to rely on Jesus Christ day by day, and step by step.  Are you learning to decrease so that He can increase?  Are you learning to become weak so that He can become strong through you?  Are you learning that His grace is sufficient for every need you will ever have?  Don’t be discouraged by what’s happening around you.  Look to the Lord to fill you with His grace and strength.  It is not enough, though, to merely acknowledge your weaknesses: you must also be willing to believe that the grace of God will supply your lack.  Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13).  It would have been foolish for Gideon to slash his army from 32,000 to 300 men unless he was prepared to believe that God was directing him and would prevail, and that Israel would overcome.  God wants to apprehend a people that He can show Himself strong through!  Will you allow God to take you, despite all your flaws, and transform you into the mighty man of valor that He is searching for and sees that you can become?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus Wept

"When He (Jesus) had heard therefore that he (Lazarus) was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was." (John 11:6) It appears that, as Christians, if we would be wise, then we must become foolish; if we would have power, then we must become weak; and if we would know true life, then we must experience death. This, of course, runs contrary to all that we think should be true. Concepts such as these are alien to our natural reasoning, and to all of our human inclinations. We always want to excel, we always want to be blessed, and we always want to have all the answers; but God often works the opposite to what we expect. Chapter 11 of St. John tells the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, very much. When He heard that His friend was sick, however, Jesus waited two more days before going to him, knowing that Lazarus would die during that period. He told His disciples before they left to go to B...
Read more

A SWORD AND A TROWEL

Nehemiah is an incredible figure in the Bible, and his story amazes me because of its relevance for today.  It speaks to me on many levels, but mostly about how important it is for me to know God’s will, get under the burdens that are close to His heart, and do the work that He has called me to do.   Nehemiah was among those Jews who were living in Babylon as a result of King Nebuchadnezzar destroying the city of Jerusalem in 593 B.C.  He was born in Persia to parents who were part of the Jewish exile.  At some point, he was enlisted into service in the palace of the King, and, so, became the King’s cupbearer - a position of importance.  While in this service, word came to him from some who had returned from Jerusalem, that the people were in great affliction, and the walls of the city were broken down, and the gates burned with fire.  The news so affected Nehemiah that he sat down and wept, and mourned, and didn’t eat for days; but, more importantly, h...
Read more

THE BODY OF DEATH

In the seventh chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, the Apostle alludes to a practice that the Romans of his time would have been familiar with.   It was a form of capital punishment that was extraordinarily cruel and ghastly.   The early Etruscans had used it and, later, so did certain Roman tyrants.   The practice involved binding the condemned individual to the dead corpse of the one that he/she had murdered.   The magistrate would have the criminal tied face-to-face, hand-to-hand, and body-to-body to their murder victim.   This forced them to live out the rest of their miserable existence in that state, enduring the horrible stench and decay of the dead body.   As the corpse rotted, it would become full of disease which would infect and eventually kill the person that was bound to it.     The Greek poet Virgil in The Aeneid , Book 8,  starting on line 485 describes this form of punishment as practiced by the Etruscan king ...
Read more