Grace & Perfection

There are some passages in Scripture that will take an eternity for me to fully fathom.  Second Corinthians 12:9 is one of those passages.  It is a truth statement from the Lord to Paul addressing the nature of His grace in the life of Paul as he deals with the reality of his “thorn in the side”.  The Lord tells Paul

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I kid you not…it will take an eternity!  There is so much to this verse.

First there is the sufficiency of God’s grace.  Whatever the situation, whatever the need, whatever the sin, whatever the failure, whatever the trial, whatever the time, no matter how high the mountain is or how low the valley goes…His grace is sufficient for me.  His grace covers my sin.  His grace grants me an eternity in His presence.  His grace lets me see past the fog of fear and beyond the perils of pain.  His grace is sufficient when mankind is ungracious.

Second, His grace gives evidence of His perfect power in my weakness!  When I try to fix things on my own, remove the trial on my own, I fail to give God the opportunity to demonstrate His perfect power.  Think about that for a second….my weakness is an opportunity to lean deeper still into His grace…into His perfect power and in that solution there is perfection.  I can do nothing perfectly no matter how hard I might try.  But by trusting in God’s grace in my weakness His perfection thrives.

I still do not understand it fully…but I understand it a little better.  Every day, every trial, every weakness is yet another opportunity for me to look at those “thorns” in my life and to trust wholly in the powerful, all-sufficient, perfect grace of my Lord and Savior.