Her words remind me of God’s words and what a good reminder, not for when I am stuffed but when I feel empty and without the resources needed for the challenges before me.
Paul said it this way:
2 Corinthians 12:7–9. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations (or to keep me from being full of myself), 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.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
The word sufficient appears only a few times in English Bibles, but the Scriptures are filled with the idea of God being enough, supplying enough, often in contrast with human inadequacy yet also expressing that God’s supply will take care of all needs.
This was true when God called for donations to the construction of the OT tabernacle. The response was so great that Moses commanded, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary” and “the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.” He supplied and they gave!
God promised sufficient supply of crops and other needs and told His people to be generous to others who are in need. Deuteronomy 15:7–8 says,
“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.”
My sister taught me by her example that God is the supply so we can freely give because if we need whatever it was that we gave to others, He will replace it with more. This reality is expressed in Malachi 3:10.
“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
The NT tells me not to worry about tomorrow for today’s problems are sufficient but it also tells me that the grace of God is enough for the issues of life, particularly to serve Him with the right attitude — an attitude given by the Holy Spirit:
2 Corinthians 3:4–6. “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. The glory of God is almost always the opposite of what human reasoning thinks it might be. That is, His power is not the same as human boldness where our sense of being unable goes away. The verse that says “His grace is sufficient for me for His power is perfected in weakness” means that in order to experience His sufficiency, I must be and feel weak. Weak is defined as being incapacitated by a lack of physical, natural, or any other qualifications. The idea is helplessness, without a sense of any resources at all. If that were not enough of a challenge, God has shown me that when His power is active in me, that sense of being weak remains. Only God’s Spirit and faith is telling me to say or do something but the rest of me shouts that I cannot. By faith, the next verse is the only way to experience God’s sufficiency in such situations; I must be willing, even welcome to being a weak person:
2 Corinthians 12:10. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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