Your grace is sufficient

I recently was talking with a good friend. We discussed different wisdoms of the Bible. One of the things we talked about for some time was the verse that says, "A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" This verse was one I have heard many times from growing up in a Christian home, but I never quite fully understood it. Now, I cannot say that I completely understand it now, but my understanding of it is substantially better than it was.

First, if you have heard this verse, you have probably only heard or studied that very last part of it, or potentially even less than that. Perhaps only, "My grace is sufficient." However, if we just look at this we miss the beauty of it. We must look at the beginning of this too. Sometimes we look at this verse and say "don't worry God's grace is sufficient, he'll take away your sin because of that." This is not at all what this is saying though. What this is saying is so much more beautiful than that. What God is saying here is that his grace is sufficient. At the beginning Paul is given a thorn in his flesh. He pleads with God to take it away, but God refuses because his grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient enough. We have no need to be perfect! WHis grace is sufficient in our sin. It's not that he will take it away from, but his grace is enough in the sin. We can still be effective with sin. This is not an excuse to sin, but rather simply to understand that God's grace is enough.

The second part of this verse is "...For my power is made perfect in weakness." This is a continuation of the last paragraph. God's power is made perfect in our weakness. If we did not have sin or faults, we would not need God, therefore in that his light shines brightest because his grace is enough to cover our sins.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I do not profess to understand his completely, but from my new understand of it I can appreciate the verse so much more. I appreciate understanding that I do not have to be a perfect person for God to use me because his grace is sufficient.